The daughter of an elderly couple called CSS to see if we could provide her with some advice on her new responsibilities of being her parent’s Power of Attorney. Linda indicated that both her parents were declining in health, and didn’t want to deal with all the financial issues any longer.
After some initial logistical discussions about how to get lawful access to her parent’s accounts, Linda mentioned that her parents had always talked about continuing their support of various charities after they passed on. Linda didn’t know if this was possible, and even if it was, how much of the burden of that would fall in her lap.
After some discussions with Linda’s parents and her siblings, the family together decided to open a CSS Donor Advised Fund which would serve as the Family Foundation. Linda’s parents provided a large gift as seed money, and their estate plan was updated to have a large portion of their estate flow to the new fund as well. The fund was set up so that the donation decisions could be done collectively by Linda, and her two siblings, with input from the parents for as long as they live.
The fund has now been in existence for a few years, and all three of the siblings have also contributed to the fund (and received their own donation receipts for tax purposes). Although the donations to the family’s favourite charities have increased, the fund is also growing in size.
Since setting up the fund, CSS has introduced our new Online Portal services called MemberNET which has made it even easier to manage. Linda can authorize donations right from MemberNET, make further deposits and see all the transaction history of the fund.
The donor advised fund has become a very popular service at CSS because it is so flexible. The donor advised fund is simply an account where donors can place donated funds for later distribution. A donor would receive a charitable tax receipt upon deposit of the funds, but can delay the distribution of those funds for an opportune time. A simple application allows the donor to set up a fund with Christian Stewardship Services, and all administration for the fund is taken care of by CSS. In addition, processing distributions from the fund to a favourite charity couldn’t be easier with our new MemberNET service.
