Need direction_charitable giving and my trust

Non-investing personal finance issues including insurance, credit, real estate, taxes, employment and legal issues such as trusts and wills.
Post Reply
Topic Author
EvelynTroy
Posts: 564
Joined: Sat Jun 07, 2008 8:35 am

Need direction_charitable giving and my trust

Post by EvelynTroy »

Thanks in advance for reader's direction. I am a bit overwhelmed and need simplified direction and explanation.
I am single and have a trust - about 80% of my estate will go to one particular charity.
What I would like to do is revise the trust so that in the future I would like flexibility in order to add a charity, and/or change the giving %'s that I now have without having to incur the cost of the estate attorney updating the trust document. There may be multiple times I would like to add a charity and to incur attorney fees is just not something I want to do.

I believe there should be a way to use a Donor Advised fund to do this, but when reading about DAF's I get confused and overwhelmed.
I did speak with a Charitable Community Foundation in my area that offered different types of funds - like a DAF, Scholarship Funds, Designated Fund, among other options. There was a 1% fee for these services. This service could be written in my trust, but it seems to me 1% cost is not necessary.

Bottom line I think, is how should my trust be adjusted to accomplish a way to make changes to my charitable giving at my death without having to have an estate attorney revise the trust.

Thank you for your help. Evelyn

PS - I may not be able to reply promptly to any replies, but I will by the end of the day.
Spike Holland
Posts: 14
Joined: Fri May 29, 2020 10:34 pm

Re: Need direction_charitable giving and my trust

Post by Spike Holland »

You should consult your lawyer on this, but here's one option to consider:

You could revise the trust (assuming it is a revocable trust) to provide that upon your death, the assets (or a portion thereof) will be distributed to the charity or charities selected by your successor trustee. You could leave a letter of instructions to the trustee indicating what charity or charities you want the funds to go to. You could change the letter at any time to reflect the changes in the charities you want to support. So you

Of course, the letter of instructions would probably not be legally enforceable so you would have to trust the trustee to carry out your wishes.

Spike
Topic Author
EvelynTroy
Posts: 564
Joined: Sat Jun 07, 2008 8:35 am

Re: Need direction_charitable giving and my trust

Post by EvelynTroy »

Thank you Spike for your reply.
In my case the successor trustee is a Trust Services firm. I will ask the attorney if I can give this firm the instructions for charitable giving.
Evelyn
Spike Holland
Posts: 14
Joined: Fri May 29, 2020 10:34 pm

Re: Need direction_charitable giving and my trust

Post by Spike Holland »

If the trust document provides that certain assets go to charity upon your death, the successor trustee would have to carry out the terms of the trust. However, if the trust document doesn't specify which charities, the successor trustee would have the right to select the charities.

I would think a reputable trustee would follow your last letter of instructions regarding the specific charities, even though the letter of instructions might not be legally binding. That would be something to discuss with both the attorney and successor trustee.

Spike
Post Reply