Philanthropy/Charitable Giving

Total 170 Posts

Gifts of Real Estate, with restrictions

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Early in my charitable planning career my employer was offered a donation of islands on Georgian Bay.  Surrounding the 100-year-old family cottage were sheds, cabins and boat houses.  The donors had a vision: it would be a children’s camp. It was a stunning property.  Valuable, despite the sagging, mouse-infested buildings.  But this gift by will was contingent and restricted.  It would be a children’s camp, or nothing at all.  The….

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Estate Donations, Estate Planning, Philanthropy/Charitable Giving

Gifts from RRIFs

• • 8 Comments

I get regular inquiries about donating funds from registered retirement income funds or RRIFs. The value of RRIFs has grown through careful saving and market gains, and these funds may represent surplus wealth. Some RRIF holders resent the requirement to take steadily increasing annual withdrawals from their RRIF. Add a dash of altruism and the idea of donating RRIF property arises. The Basics There are a couple of factors to….

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Philanthropy/Charitable Giving

The Perpetual Debate over Endowments

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  Charitable endowments are having a challenging moment.  Despite the historical success of this medieval European charitable fund structure, the accumulation of capital for public benefit has always faced controversy.  Endowments, which focus on long-term public benefit, have a built-in tension between capital and annual spending.  Does the capital exist to provide steady future good, or could it be used better now?  Canadian Context Canadian private and public foundations hold….

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Charitable Giving, Philanthropy/Charitable Giving, Uncategorized

The Cy-Près Doctrine: When Good Intentions Count For Something

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The cy-près doctrine It is common practice to leave a gift to a charity in your will. However, the charity that the testator wished to support may not have been named properly in the will (leading to confusion about who was supposed to benefit from the funds), or may have ceased to exist by the time the testator died. Where a testator intended to benefit a charity, the courts have….

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Charitable Giving, Estate Administration, Estate Donations, Estate Litigation, Estate Planning, Executors, Philanthropy/Charitable Giving, Trustee, Trusts, Wills

Charitable purposes and estate donations

• • 2 Comments

Estate planning is an exercise in time travel.  It is impossible to predict the future, especially when the time gap between planning and death is often decades.  Fast forward 25 years, a charity may not exist when the estate is distributed. Charity law identified this problem and a solution to it over 500 years ago. The solution is the charitable purpose in a charitable trust.  In trust law there are “object trusts” that….

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Estate Donations, Estate Planning, Philanthropy/Charitable Giving, Uncategorized

Private foundations & private company shares

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Philanthropic individuals that own their wealth in a private company may want to set-up a charitable legacy by donating some of their shares or debt to a private foundation. Although this sounds like a great idea, caution needs to be exercised. Donations of private company shares or debt to a private foundation may not result in a charitable donation tax credit under the Income Tax Act (ITA) due to the….

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Charitable Giving, Philanthropy/Charitable Giving, Tax Issues
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