Fresh Perspectives & Closer Looks | New Opportunities in Charitable Planning

Your June Content

As the days grow longer and a new season begins to unfold, the team at Gulf Coast knows that summer often brings a fresh perspective—and sometimes a closer look at what clients truly value. That’s often the case with charitable giving, which is why we’re exploring several charitable planning strategies that can open the door to deeper conversations and inspire tax-smart giving opportunities.

• Unusual Noncash Assets Can Make Impactful Gifts
• Need-to-Knows on Split-Interest Charitable Gifts
• Retirement Plans & Charitable Giving

Meet Your Charitable Giving AI Tool

We’re excited to introduce a powerful new resource designed specifically for advisors: Frank™. Created by Planned Giving Interactive, we’ve partnered with them to bring you this innovative AI tool built to support you in navigating the complexities of planned giving and estate planning with confidence.

Frank™ was thoughtfully developed with advisors in mind. Bringing together advanced AI capabilities and industry-specific knowledge from American Counsel of Charitable Gift Annuities, National Charitable Gift Planners Association, Charitable Solutions, LLC, and Dr. Russell James, to name a few, among other leading charitable experts, ensuring relevant, timely, and practical guidance. Best of all, it’s completely secure and private. What you ask stays with you, allowing you to explore possibilities, test ideas, and refine strategies without concern. Frank™ not just a tool, but a trusted extension of your professional toolkit.

A must-have resource for advisors:

• Built for you
• Completely secure
• Answers the tough (and rare) questions
• Available 24/7
• Expands your expertise on demand

With Frank™, you’re never alone in tackling even the most complex charitable giving conversations. It empowers you to deepen your knowledge, enhance your client recommendations, and stay agile in an evolving planning landscape.

And when you’re ready to take things a step further, our team is here to support you. Frank™ is a powerful starting point, but we’re always available to help you apply these insights to real-world strategies, collaborate on client solutions, and bring your plans to life. Frank™ is powerful, but you also need to know the right questions to asked to get the best outcomes. Don’t hesitate to reach out, we’re honored to be your first call when it comes to philanthropy.

Unusual Noncash Assets Can Make Impactful Gifts

If you’re like many advisors, you may have discovered that often charitable giving conversations begin (and end) with cash or appreciated stock. And of course, you are well aware that appreciated stock is an excellent choice for your clients to fund a donor advised or other type of fund at Gulf Coast because it may avoid capital gains tax while also possibly triggering eligibility for a charitable deduction at fair market value.

But for some clients—especially business owners, collectors, and affluent retirees—valuable assets may take a different form entirely. Airplanes, classic cars, and other tangible property, such as grain or livestock, can represent a mixed bag of characteristics: significant wealth, ongoing maintenance costs, and emotional attachment, all of which may add up to a charitable giving opportunity. These situations may no longer be one-off cases. Classic cars are a notable example, with some estimates tallying the total at more than 43 million vehicles in the United States alone—an estimated $1 trillion in total insurable value!

Here are four tips to consider as you work with your charitable clients.

1. Always reach out to Gulf Coast

   Anytime you’re dealing with a charitable client, please reach out to Gulf Coast to explore your client’s options. Your clients may be surprised to learn that public charities, such as Gulf Coast, can accept a wide range of noncash assets, provided the assets can be evaluated, valued, transferred, and ultimately liquidated to support your clients’ charitable goals.

    

2. Ask questions beyond balance sheet basics

   Clients may forget to mention that they own highly appreciated noncash assets. As clients prepare to meet with you, they are often so focused on gathering investment statements and real estate information that they forget about classic cars, aircraft, and jewelry. Comprehensive conversations are especially timely as many affluent households continue to hold substantial wealth outside of traditional investment portfolios. Recreational assets purchased years ago may now hold significant value while also generating ongoing expenses, storage concerns, and succession-planning questions. Clients who are downsizing or simplifying during retirement may welcome charitable strategies that transform underused assets into community impact.

    

3. Build your client’s charitable plan prior to a sale

   When you spot unusual assets on a client’s balance sheet, and you know your client is charitable, it’s important to consider the possibilities. A client preparing to sell a classic car, for example, could incur significant capital gains tax if the asset has appreciated in value. Contributing the asset to a fund at Gulf Coast before a sale may help reduce or eliminate those taxes while also generating funds to support charitable causes the client cares about. And don’t forget a charitable remainder trust might be  a viable solution for those less interested in an outright gift.

    

4. Pay attention to the rules

   Gifts of noncash assets require careful coordination. Unlike publicly traded securities, these assets involve additional due diligence. Title transfers, appraisals, environmental reviews for real estate, insurance considerations, debt obligations, marketability, and liquidation logistics all require attention. The IRS also imposes specific substantiation and reporting requirements for charitable deductions involving noncash gifts.

The team at Gulf Coast is happy to work alongside you and clients’ other attorneys, CPAs, valuation experts, and financial advisors to determine whether proposed gifts are feasible and which structures might be best. In many cases, Gulf Coast can accept the asset and facilitate its sale.  

The bottom line here is that for a charitable client, using a much-loved car collection or other luxury asset to support favorite causes and address community needs may be far more appealing than knowing the asset could sit in storage for years and years, with no end in sight to the maintenance expenses. You can add tremendous value by helping your clients consider whether highly specialized collections and “passion assets” are better suited for charitable planning than for transfer through an estate, especially when heirs may not share the same interest in maintaining or managing them. Whether your client owns a rare bicycle collection, antique toy collection, classic cars, or a country music producer’s private library, conversations about donating unusual assets can help clients simplify their estates, support charitable priorities, and avoid placing the emotional and logistical burden of niche collections on the next generation.

Your Need-to-Knows on Split-Interest Charitable Gifts

As charitable planning conversations become more sophisticated, many advisors are revisiting so-called “split-interest gifts” to help clients balance philanthropic goals with income needs. Two of the most common strategies—a charitable gift annuity (CGA) and a charitable remainder trust (CRT)—can both provide clients with lifetime income while ultimately benefiting charitable causes. Despite their similarities, the two vehicles function very differently and may serve distinct client needs.

Understanding when to consider each option can help attorneys, CPAs, and financial advisors deliver more customized and impactful planning guidance. Unless your practice specializes in charitable giving, though, you’re not likely to have the rules for CGAs and CRTs at your fingertips.

Here are six FAQs to get you started.

1. What do CGAs and CRTs do for a client?

   At a high level, both a CGA and a CRT would allow your client to make an irrevocable charitable gift while retaining an income stream for life or for a term of years. In both cases, your client may qualify for an immediate charitable income tax deduction, and a portion of future payments may receive favorable tax treatment. In short, people use CGAs and CRTs to save taxes, make a gift to charity, and create an income stream.  

    

2. Which is easier—a CGA or a CRT?

   A charitable gift annuity is generally the simpler of the two arrangements. The client transfers assets to a charitable organization in exchange for a fixed lifetime payment backed by the charity’s general assets. Payment rates are typically based on age and standardized actuarial assumptions – as recommended by the American Council on Gift Annuities. Because the payout is fixed and administration is relatively straightforward, CGAs often appeal to older donors seeking predictability and simplicity. Note that not every charity offers a CGA option; many smaller or mid-sized nonprofits lack the resources, licenses, or state registrations needed to manage them.  Gulf Coast is here to help your client set up a CGA to ultimately benefit a charity or cause area that your client names.

    

3. Which is more flexible—a CGA or a CRT?

   A charitable remainder trust offers considerably more flexibility than a CGA, but it is also more complex. A CRT is a separately administered trust—its own legal entity—that pays income to one or more beneficiaries before the remaining assets eventually pass to charity. Unlike a CGA, a CRT can be designed in different ways. A charitable remainder annuity trust (CRAT) provides fixed annual payments, while a charitable remainder unitrust (CRUT) pays a variable amount based on a percentage of the trust's annually revalued assets.

    

4. Which option is better for clients contributing larger assets?  

   CRTs are often better suited for clients contributing larger or more complex assets. Because the trust can sell appreciated assets without triggering immediate capital gains tax within the trust, CRTs are frequently used in connection with highly appreciated real estate, concentrated stock positions, or even business interests prior to a sale.

   In addition, CRTs can accommodate multiple beneficiaries, customized payout structures, and professional investment management strategies. Clients who want greater flexibility, longer-term wealth planning opportunities, or inflation-sensitive income may prefer a unitrust structure over the fixed nature of a CGA.

   Of course, that flexibility comes with added responsibilities. CRTs require formal trust administration, annual tax filings, ongoing investment oversight, and legal drafting. CGAs, on the other hand, are generally easier for clients to understand and establish.

    

5. When is a CGA better?

   You may recall that a technique called a “Legacy IRA” was created by the SECURE 2.0 Act, allowing taxpayers aged 70 ½ or older to make a one-time election for a tax-free Qualified Charitable Distribution to certain CRTs or CGAs. Clients who want to take advantage of the Legacy IRA may find that a CGA is better suited to their needs. The cost of setting up and administering a CRT may not be worth it because the limit for these transactions is $55,000 (2026 level) per person.

    

6. What’s the first step in exploring CRTs and CGAs?

   As always, the team at Gulf Coast is honored to be your first call whenever charitable giving comes up in a client conversation. If you are exploring CGAs and CRTs, we’ll point you in the right direction so that you can evaluate the rules for each technique, run illustrations specific to your client, review important questions, including what type of asset will fund the gift, the size of the proposed contribution, the client’s income goals, the number of beneficiaries, and cost concerns.

Finally, keep in mind that charitable giving conversations are not limited to ultra-high-net-worth households. Many clients today are seeking ways to create reliable retirement income while also making meaningful charitable commitments. Split-interest gifts can help accomplish both objectives simultaneously. We look forward to our next conversation!

Rolling Forward with Retirement Plans

You’ve no doubt noticed that Qualified Charitable Distributions (QCDs) continue to gain traction as one of the most practical and effective charitable planning tools for clients over age 70 ½. By allowing eligible clients to transfer funds directly from an IRA to a qualified charity without recognizing the distribution as taxable income, QCDs can help reduce adjusted gross income while supporting charitable priorities. For many clients—especially those who do not itemize deductions—a QCD is particularly appealing.  

What’s especially notable is that in recent years, Congress has expanded planning opportunities by indexing annual giving limits for inflation ($111,000 per person in 2026) and allowing certain one-time QCDs (Legacy IRAs) to fund charitable gift annuities and charitable remainder trusts. And now, proposed legislation known as the “Charity Parity Act” would, if enacted, extend QCD treatment beyond IRAs to include employer-sponsored retirement plans such as 401(k)s, 403(b)s, and 457(b)s. This potential change in the law would remove the extra step of rolling assets into an IRA before making a charitable gift, simplifying the process for many donors whose retirement savings remain primarily in workplace plans.

Consider a typical client scenario. Your client, age 74, is taking Required Minimum Distributions (RMDs) from a traditional IRA. Because the client claims the standard deduction, charitable gifts do not generate additional tax savings. By instead directing a portion of the RMD to a qualified charity as a QCD, the client can satisfy part or all of the RMD obligation without increasing taxable income. In many cases, this can also help reduce Medicare premium surcharges and lessen the taxation of Social Security benefits, creating planning advantages beyond the charitable deduction itself.

Here are a few examples of how Gulf Coast can help your client achieve charitable goals through QCDs:

• A client uses a QCD to contribute to a field of interest fund at Gulf Coast focused on causes they care about, such as education, healthcare, the arts, or environmental conservation. This allows the client to support a specific area of passion while relying on Gulf Coast’s expertise to identify impactful grants to effective nonprofit organizations over time.
• A client makes a QCD to a designated fund or scholarship fund held at Gulf Coast. For example, the client may support a favorite local nonprofit through a designated fund or help students pursue higher education through an endowed scholarship fund, all while reducing taxable income through a QCD.

For financial advisors partnering with Gulf Coast as an outside investment manager, these arrangements are great since those options can be endowed, allowing you to continue managing those assets. 

Keep in mind that charitable giving with IRAs goes beyond current gifts to charity! As part of advising clients about their IRAs, be sure to check their beneficiary designations. Not only is it tax advantageous for a client to name a fund at Gulf Coast or other public charity as beneficiary of an IRA, but it’s also a best practice to avoid problems in the future. (Retirement plan beneficiary designations continue to show up in cautionary tales!)

For attorneys, CPAs, and financial advisors, developments related to QCDs are worth watching closely. QCDs increasingly serve as a natural connector among retirement planning, philanthropy, and legacy conversations. Just as importantly, QCD discussions often open the door to broader planning opportunities, helping clients align financial goals with the causes and communities they care about most. As always, please reach out to us anytime to discuss your clients’ options.