Charitable giving services for family offices
Bank of America Private Bank is committed to helping families achieve their charitable goals in an effective, efficient and enjoyable manner. Drawing on our deep resources and experience in philanthropy, we can assist families and their family offices in designing, implementing, and evaluating their charitable goals and giving.
Whether your family office already has charitable giving processes and vehicles in place or is considering pursuing philanthropic goals for the first time, there are essential considerations— administrative, educational, strategic and investment — that need to be addressed to better enable the family to achieve its philanthropic vision and charitable goals. Philanthropy done well is more than transactional and, at its best, can be transformational for donor families. Alongside our Bank of America Private Bank Family Office can help you create and manage your family’s charitable giving strategy and goals.
Spectrum of giving options
While some families prefer the ease and spontaneity of direct giving, many also use structured options that enable a more nuanced and strategic approach to their giving. Employing a more deliberate charitable strategy can help families better integrate their giving with their broader wealth management strategy. Choosing structured options for the family’s charitable giving can facilitate the sharing of family values, and help bridge generations and unite family members around shared causes and concerns.
There are many ways to give and to advance a family’s charitable goals, including:
DIRECT DONATIONS TO CHARITY
- Provide immediate financial support to charities
- Are typically tax-deductible in current year
VOLUNTEERISM
- Provides hands-on involvement through a wide range of roles and responsibilities, including board member, and volunteer
- Provides valuable insight into an organization
- Provides opportunity to employ skills and talents
DONOR-ADVISED FUNDS
- Provide market-rate, tax deductible contributions to the donor’s personal giving account
- Provide donors to elect grants to the charities they care most about over time
- Provides donors the option to make their grants anonymous
CHARITABLE TRUSTS
Charitable remainder trust
- Provide regular payments to the donor or their beneficiaries
- Provide remaining assets to charity when the trust terminates
Charitable lead trusts
- Provide income to charity for a specified time
- Return remaining assets to the donor or heirs when trust expires
PRIVATE FOUNDATIONS
- Provide full control over grant making and investment management
- Provide room for family engagement at all levels
- Are subject to minimum distribution requirements
- Are subject to IRS regulations including annual tax filing and payment
Supporting a charitable giving strategy within your family office
Our charitable giving and family office specialists can provide guidance and share best practices with family office staff and family members on a variety of strategic questions and concerns, including:
- Mission and vision. Identifying and articulating family values and interest areas in a formal statement to guide giving.
- Giving strategy. Developing an approach to giving that’s effective and efficient.
- Family collaboration. Facilitating discussions, retreats, events and customized consultations to engage multigenerational family members in meaningful ways; finding charitable solutions that include all family members; encouraging teamwork on the issues that matter most.
- Education and networks. Developing learning plans to enhance knowledge of important issues; connecting to peer networks and education opportunities.
- Impact. Establishing criteria to help measure progress toward goals so giving can be both successful and satisfying.
- Governance. Providing guidance on board structure and foundation, including meeting applicable distribution requirements, creating written policies, and avoiding improper grant distributions or use of philanthropic assets.
- Succession planning. Educating and engaging current and future philanthropic stewards and leaders.
- Administration1. Verifying the tax-exempt status of grant recipients; confirming that recipient organizations are not flagged on specific watch lists; preparing grant correspondence; maintaining current grantmaking records.
- Wealth planning. Integrating philanthropy into the family’s overarching wealth strategy, including selecting the appropriate giving vehicle(s).
- Investment management. Creating a highly customized investment approach that aligns with the mission, spending policy, risk tolerance, liquidity needs and fiduciary responsibilities.
