The Power of Giving Makes a Difference

Danny and his son Josh own a successful family business together. In addition to the business, they are both very philanthropic. They have a shared passion to help others through charitable giving, however each of them have their own visions and outlooks when it comes to achieving their philanthropy. Josh is considering using a donor-advised fund (DAF) since he heard from a friend that it was easy to use, and Danny is thinking of setting up two private foundations; one in the US, and one in Europe for a specific focus he has there. Josh is focused on domestic giving, family engagement, funding with basic assets annually, and incorporating part of his very large real estate portfolio. Danny wants to use his US foundation for his domestic giving, have his family involved, fund annually with basic assets, and also potentially use part of his very large real estate portfolio. For his European foundation, he wants to run programs to help people in need in a very specific way, which requires building one facility and renovating another, as well as including one additional property as part of the overall project. Funding for this foundation could mirror his US foundation, but he wasn’t sure.

Danny and Josh would like to have these set up prior to December 31st for tax purposes, and since time was of the essence they reached out to their Financial Professional, Sam, to schedule a meeting.

During the conversation with Sam, Danny and Josh shared their thoughts for how they want to make the world a better place by giving back in a way that was meaningful to them. Sam knew there was a fair amount of complexity in their strategies and reached out to Oppenheimer’s alliance with Foundation Source to set up a subsequent meeting with them. He knew that as part of Oppenheimer Life Agency, Ltd. (OLA) wealth management platform, the partners at Foundation Source would be able to take Danny and Josh’s philanthropic vision and make it a reality. Working with Foundation Source would cover not only the size and types of assets they would be using, but also the natural evolution that will happen with their philanthropy, and how that will affect their family and estate planning.

Within just two weeks, Sam and his clients had a total of four meetings with Foundation Source. They talked through the assets being used today, the real estate in the future, and mapped out family engagement strategies, which included their multi-generational goals. The Foundation Source team, led by Jessica, was able to create and implement their family’s philanthropic plan, as well as realize their individual tax benefits for the calendar year.

Danny and Josh were thrilled that Sam had this resource available to them. In discussions with Sam and Jessica, Danny and Josh decided to establish one US private foundation that they would both fund, while serving as officers and directors. Through this resource offered by Sam, they were able to execute and operate their foundation as if it was two separate foundations, allowing them to follow their own visions simultaneously, while achieving their family engagement and succession goals. In addition, Sam was thrilled as well, not only was he able to satisfy his client’s goals and objectives, but since Foundation Source does not harbor, nor manage any of their clients’ assets, both Danny and Josh turned to Sam to manage the additional assets for the established foundation.