Estate planning is all about the disposition of your assets and, for many people, this involves determining how to divide assets among heirs. What happens, though, when you don’t have a spouse or children, or other obvious heirs to your estate? Unfortunately, many people in this situation don’t feel it’s necessary to plan where their assets will go, which makes it more likely that their money will end up somewhere they wouldn’t choose – namely, the state. For this reason, it’s always prudent to have a strategy in place and to plan ahead for various outcomes.

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday for several reasons:

More than five years ago, a client of mine who is a physician introduced me to Dr. Abul Sharah, who retired early from corporate life in Minnesota in 1999 and founded the International Village Clinic (IVC).  I learned that Abul had been born a fatherless, impoverished boy in Uttar Pradesh, India’s poorest province.  chance, brains, and hard work, he got an education and rose to senior engineering and marketing positions at Honeywell and MTS Systems over a 27-year career.

More than five years ago, a client of mine who is a physician introduced me to Dr. Abul Sharah, who retired early from corporate life in Minnesota in 1999 and founded the International Village Clinic (IVC).  I learned that Abul had been born a fatherless, impoverished boy in Uttar Pradesh, India’s poorest province. 

Donor Advised Funds can be set up easily to accomplish both tax savings and charitable giving goals.  Most people think they need to have a big sum of money before considering setting up their own family charitable fund.  But Donor Advised Funds are the most popular charitable vehicles for donors at many levels of wealth.  You can start your own donor advised fund with as little as $10,000.  I generally recommend a minimum of $50,000 to my clients if they plan to request grants from the Donor Advised Funds to their charities within a short period of time, however.  I would like to discuss how to use DAFs in various situations in this article.