Shownotes
This week, we're diving into the often-overlooked world of philanthropy with a fellow UNCG alum, Dean Castaldo. Join us as Dean shares his extensive knowledge on the many ways we can support our favorite causes, from naming beneficiaries and directing stocks to establishing donor-advised funds and trusts.
Whether you're just starting your financial journey or looking to leave a legacy, Dean's insights will illuminate a plethora of options for making impactful contributions. Get ready to discover how you can make a difference, not just now, but for generations to come.
Tune in now to unlock the potential of your philanthropic spirit!
About Our Guest
Dean Castaldo, J.D. leads a dedicated team of fundraisers at the USNA Foundation, connecting with alumni and parents across the Southeast and Southern California to secure 6- and 7-figure philanthropic investments that enhance the midshipman experience. Prior to his role with the Foundation, Dean honed his development skills as Associate Director of Alumni Engagement at UNC-Greensboro, where he supported corporate partners, the military-veteran community, and young professionals. He has served in the development profession since late 2015 while bringing over 15 years of combined active and reserve experience leading teams of warfighters as a Marine Corps NCO and a current Naval Officer.
Dean has extensive non-profit advisory experience serving on multiple boards, including as a current member of the UNCG Alumni Leadership Board and the Naval Sea Cadets Foundation Board of Directors.
Connect with Dean
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/deancastaldojr/
Connect with Tiffany
Website: https://www.moneytalkwitht.com
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Timestamps
[00:00] Philanthropy is reachable for majority of people.
[05:19] Designate beneficiaries flexibly with selection of percentage.
[08:24] Transfer accounts tax free or tax deferred.
[10:40] Utilize trust structures for financial and estate planning.
[13:58] Invest $100 monthly into donor advised fund.
[18:14] Gratitude for information and hope for day.
Key Themes
- Understanding philanthropy.
- Options for philanthropic giving.
- Beneficiary designations for donations.
- Tax advantages of estate gifts.
- Using wills and trusts.
- Donor-advised funds explained.
- Gifting stocks to nonprofits.
Additional Links & Resources
- Home Page - UNC Greensboro
- Habitat for Humanity
- Veterans Charity - Non Profit Organization for Veterans | WWP
- Charles Schwab
- Chase Online | Chase.com
- Fidelity Investments
- Acorns
- Robinhood
- US Naval Academy Alumni Association & Foundation - www.usna.com
Copyright 2024 Tiffany Grant
This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis:
Chartable - https://chartable.com/privacy
Transcripts
You know what it is. That's right. It's time to talk money with your money
Speaker:nerd and financial coach. Now, tighten those purse strings
Speaker:and open those ears. It's the money talk with Tiff
Speaker:podcast.
Speaker:Hey, everyone. I am so excited because I have a
Speaker:UNCG alum on the line. So, for those that don't know, I
Speaker:graduated from UNCG, and his name is Dean Castaldo, and
Speaker:he's here to talk to us about philanthropy, which we've never talked about
Speaker:on the podcast before that I can recall. So, hey, Dean, how are
Speaker:you? I'm doing very well, Tiffany, and glad to be here.
Speaker:Thanks for having me. Yes, thank you so much for coming on and talking
Speaker:about this important topic. So, first and foremost, let's just lay the
Speaker:groundwork for our audience. What is philanthropy?
Speaker:Hmm. So, in the broadest sense, philanthropy
Speaker:is a way that virtually everyone, regardless of
Speaker:where you are in your career or in your life, it's a way for
Speaker:you to find the cause that you are
Speaker:most passionate about and support it. Specifically, we're
Speaker:talking about with money. But money has a lot of
Speaker:different meanings, and you can do a lot of really good work
Speaker:and support your cause through a number of ways. But generally
Speaker:speaking, we're talking about making a donation to an organization
Speaker:that you care deeply about.
Speaker:Gotcha. Gotcha. So, if we have people listening, and
Speaker:they're like, well, Dean, Tiffany, you know, that sounds amazing,
Speaker:but what type of options do I have for this?
Speaker:Like, you know, a lot of people think of philanthropy, and they think about
Speaker:celebrities or, you know, they might think about
Speaker:organizations or something, but what are the different options? If
Speaker:somebody was like, you know, I want to leave something later on down the
Speaker:road, what could that look like? Yeah,
Speaker:great question. So, one, I would start by saying
Speaker:philanthropy truly is within reach for the vast
Speaker:majority of folks. And while we often think of philanthropy as being something
Speaker:limited for high net worth or ultra high net worth, really
Speaker:wealthy individuals, even if you're a
Speaker:young UNCG grad, there are ways that you can support
Speaker:your alma mater or support your local habitat for Humanity,
Speaker:et cetera, in a very impactful way. And
Speaker:so one of the things I encourage folks in my role
Speaker:is, depending on where they are in their life and how
Speaker:much they are looking to or how much is allocated in their
Speaker:budget to support their cause of choice.
Speaker:We often talk about deferred gifts, or sometimes you'll hear them
Speaker:called planned gifts. And so these are actually a really
Speaker:nice way to pledge your support for an
Speaker:organization through something like, for example, let's say you
Speaker:have a 401 or a 403 B, or
Speaker:an IRA or a small brokerage account, even a Robinhood
Speaker:account or acorns, any of these organization, any of these
Speaker:entities, when you establish an account, you
Speaker:have to also create a beneficiary of that account.
Speaker:So in the event that something happened to you,
Speaker:who will be the recipient of those funds? Whether
Speaker:there's $5,000 or $5 million in that account,
Speaker:it's got to go somewhere. And for most folks, the last place you want
Speaker:to go to is to the government. So it's a great way,
Speaker:or it's a great option for you to designate an organization.
Speaker:So, for example, my wife and I, we did something very
Speaker:small, probably a couple of years ago, where we, we designated
Speaker:UNC Greensboro as the beneficiary of one of our
Speaker:retirement accounts. And so, you know, many, many, many years down the
Speaker:road, when something should happen to us and life
Speaker:takes its natural course of action, then a certain
Speaker:percentage of those accounts will go to very specific
Speaker:programs and scholarships. And so deferred gifts
Speaker:is one way that designating a
Speaker:beneficiary of a current use account for
Speaker:a deferred gift is one way that you can benefit your nonprofit of
Speaker:choice. Interesting. So if someone wanted
Speaker:to designate, you know, a charity or nonprofit or whatever
Speaker:as the beneficiary, could it be with any account? So, like
Speaker:checking savings, or is it limited to investment
Speaker:accounts? Yeah. So good. Good question. For
Speaker:the most part, you would have a transfer, what's referred to as a transfer
Speaker:on death designation. And
Speaker:for most accounts, it's as simple as going online. You
Speaker:could log in whether you have a Charles Schwab account or
Speaker:a chase account, whatever the financial institution might be.
Speaker:And it's really a three to five minute process where you go
Speaker:online and you say, x percentage of this account
Speaker:goes to this legal entity. And typically
Speaker:organizations, certainly well established
Speaker:organizations like a university or let's say the wounded
Speaker:Warrior project or something like that, they provide you the
Speaker:information on their website. So they will say, you list our
Speaker:official legal name, here's our exempt id
Speaker:number, and here's our official address. And
Speaker:the institution that is holding the account that you are trying to make the
Speaker:designation with, they ask for that information, you put it in,
Speaker:and you press submit, and literally within 60 seconds, you get an
Speaker:email confirmation that says you have a new beneficiary
Speaker:designation. And the great thing about this particular
Speaker:option is, one, if you
Speaker:are uncertain of how much money you will need from that account throughout
Speaker:your life, this gives you some flexibility. You're promising a
Speaker:percentage, as opposed to committing
Speaker:$100,000 or $5 million.
Speaker:So if you live until you're
Speaker:110 years old and there's only $10,000
Speaker:left in that account, what you've
Speaker:committed is a percentage of that $10,000. And so it gives you a lot of
Speaker:flexibility in that regard. But the other thing that's nice
Speaker:for, let's say, relatively
Speaker:young grad who's just getting started, not really sure what their
Speaker:family plans will look like, how many kids they will have, whether they will get
Speaker:married at any point. You can change
Speaker:these beneficiaries. You could make a beneficiary designation
Speaker:today and then three weeks from now, say, well, I've
Speaker:decided to prioritize another organization. You literally go back
Speaker:online and you change that designation in real time.
Speaker:So it offers a lot of flexibility,
Speaker:but it also affords you an opportunity to get
Speaker:more closely aligned and connected with your organization of choice.
Speaker:And it really is a popular and meaningful way
Speaker:to support, at least in the interim. Very cool. Very cool.
Speaker:So I know that there's tax advantages
Speaker:while you're living. Are there
Speaker:any tax advantages to, like, a philanthropy
Speaker:philanthropic gift like this once you pass
Speaker:away? Yeah. Great question. So this is where
Speaker:I have to put my disclaimer out there. So
Speaker:you should always check with your personal advisor. And
Speaker:in my role, my day job, we always tell folks the
Speaker:same thing. They should always talk with their estate attorneys and their
Speaker:wealth managers to ensure that whatever tax
Speaker:advantages may be afforded to them are, in fact,
Speaker:available to them. But
Speaker:there's a lot of nuances as to whether or
Speaker:not a disbursement from your estate to a nonprofit
Speaker:does, in fact, create or mitigate tax
Speaker:circumstances. And so it's, in
Speaker:short, it's likely that for many people,
Speaker:you're not even worried about estate tax, because it's a relatively high
Speaker:threshold, and there's a lot of ways that you can
Speaker:transfer those accounts to your spouse tax free. You can transfer those
Speaker:accounts to children tax free, or at least tax
Speaker:deferred. And so there's a lot of reasons why you would not
Speaker:transfer or designate a beneficiary
Speaker:on one of your accounts outside of immediate family members.
Speaker:So I'm being a little bit careful here, but the short answer is, yes, there
Speaker:may be some tax advantages to that estate, particularly
Speaker:if you're talking about higher net worth
Speaker:estates. And, you know, which is why, you
Speaker:know, we often hear about, you know, somebody who's named
Speaker:a school at Harvard or MIT or Johns Hopkins, you
Speaker:know, how, or even quite honestly, if you read the newsletters out of
Speaker:UNC Greensboro, a lot of folks who have made their
Speaker:designation through an estate gift, why they would
Speaker:very carefully plan how much they are leaving to the university,
Speaker:because they know that if that
Speaker:particular dollar amount was going to some other heir or some
Speaker:other recipient, that it would incur a significant tax
Speaker:bill associated with it. Leaving it to a nonprofit
Speaker:saves on those taxes, but also impacts,
Speaker:positively impacts their organization. Yes, yes, and
Speaker:yes, we do disclaimers around here. Cause, you know, this is just
Speaker:to spread ideas and information. It's not going to be
Speaker:specific to your situation. So, like Dean said, make sure that
Speaker:you talk to your financial planner or a financial professional to see
Speaker:what works for you. But with that being said, okay, so we know
Speaker:that we can do beneficiaries. Is there any other way that we can
Speaker:leave money to causes that are important to
Speaker:us? Yeah, absolutely. So then the other very
Speaker:popular way. So we'll set aside what
Speaker:folks, a lot of folks understand. Of course, you can make a gift
Speaker:with credit card. You can always send cash and check institutions.
Speaker:I don't know of a single institution that would not take those kinds
Speaker:of gifts. But another way is you can,
Speaker:depending on your family setup, if you have a will
Speaker:or a trust. And by the way, trusts aren't just
Speaker:for the extremely wealthy. You know,
Speaker:depending on your circumstances, many average middle class
Speaker:american families, you know, leverage the power of various
Speaker:trust structures for their financial situation.
Speaker:You can write, have your estate attorney write
Speaker:in specific organization to benefit
Speaker:from whatever assets are left in your
Speaker:estate. And this is great, because, again, you know, when the time comes,
Speaker:you will not have a say. You will not be around to say
Speaker:how much you loved your alma mater or how much you love the
Speaker:humane society or whatever the cause might be. But
Speaker:specifically listing that in your estate
Speaker:plan so your official estate documents is a great way
Speaker:to make that gift. Additionally, if you are working
Speaker:with a fundraising shop to do just that,
Speaker:you'll also very likely be afforded certain
Speaker:benefits during your lifetime. So, you know, many organizations, if you
Speaker:say, I'm going to leave my alma mater
Speaker:$15,000 in my estate, and you let them know
Speaker:and you provide them that documentation, you may be
Speaker:afforded some sort of recognition, whether that's on a donor wall or
Speaker:maybe you name a scholarship, or at larger amounts, you can name a
Speaker:particular facility or a room or something like that. And so when you go
Speaker:through that more formal process, there may be some advantages
Speaker:of enjoying the benefit of your future gift. If you work with
Speaker:that institution. I won't say downside,
Speaker:but the other piece of that is you are very
Speaker:likely, unless you're an attorney yourself and you're doing all of your estate planning
Speaker:yourself, you will likely have to go to an attorney
Speaker:to get an official will or trust document
Speaker:created and filed and make sure that it comports with all the
Speaker:state laws, just to be on the safe side. Yes,
Speaker:yes. That's really good information. And, you know, honestly, like, when I
Speaker:was walking the halls of the university and stuff, or when I get, like, the
Speaker:updates, I'm like, oh, I would love to have a grant in my
Speaker:name, or, you know, my name on the wall with a plaque so all the
Speaker:students can walk past my name, too. You know, it's like legacy that
Speaker:you leave, and I feel like that's really important.
Speaker:You know, maybe not for everybody, but for some people, I feel
Speaker:like legacy is important. Yeah. And,
Speaker:you know, one of the things that we talk about, you know, if you're in
Speaker:the development space for a nonprofit, particularly universities
Speaker:or community foundations, things of that nature,
Speaker:we talk often about, maybe it doesn't make sense.
Speaker:You give it all away, either
Speaker:current use or in a deferred gift capacity. But maybe you
Speaker:create a vehicle where your children or your grandchildren
Speaker:can take over that responsibility of being sort of a
Speaker:family philanthropist. And very popular these
Speaker:days are donor advice funds. These are funds that you and
Speaker:I could go out and establish today. Typically, they're very
Speaker:low minimums for some entities. So, for example, fidelity,
Speaker:which is one of the largest in the country, you can create a donor advise
Speaker:fund online, probably in about seven to ten minutes.
Speaker:And, you know, you put $100 in there, and you could
Speaker:budget into your monthly bills. You know, I want
Speaker:to put x number of dollars in this donor advise fund. And then every year,
Speaker:or maybe not every year, you can choose when you can
Speaker:send gifts from that donor advise fund to your
Speaker:organization of choice. And oftentimes, if you
Speaker:forecast 30, 40 years down the road in your life and say, well, I've
Speaker:got quite a bit of money in this account, instead of saying, well,
Speaker:I want it all to go away as soon as I pass away, I want
Speaker:to go to my alma mater, you could say, well, in
Speaker:fact, I would actually prefer my children or my grandchildren to,
Speaker:to learn the value of philanthropy. You teach them throughout their life, and then
Speaker:they take over the responsibility of issuing grants from that donor
Speaker:advise fund, which is very popular. It's, you
Speaker:know, for anyone who's familiar with family foundations, this is
Speaker:very similar construct, except for it's a lot easier to
Speaker:establish a lot less burden in terms of annual reporting and
Speaker:requirements with the IR's and that kind of thing. Awesome. Awesome.
Speaker:Okay, so let's recap these options. Cause I know we covered a lot.
Speaker:So we have adding as a beneficiary, so you can add the
Speaker:organization as a beneficiary. You could do it yourself online
Speaker:generally. Then we have just giving a gift.
Speaker:So, you know, credit card, debit card, check, cash,
Speaker:whatever that looks like. That's what people are most familiar with.
Speaker:We have the donor advice funds that we just talked about
Speaker:where you can open an account and then make gifts from that account.
Speaker:And what am I missing? I feel like I'm missing something. So
Speaker:I don't know if we talked about it yet, but I would just add one
Speaker:more in there, which is advantageous to
Speaker:most folks if you've started to build a stock
Speaker:portfolio or a mutual fund or any
Speaker:sort of brokerage account or IRA,
Speaker:even if you are not old enough to be in
Speaker:your retirement years, if you have a brokerage account and you have stock and it
Speaker:appreciates in value, instead of selling that
Speaker:stock and incurring a tax liability where you're going to have to pay capital
Speaker:gains on it, and depending on how much you make from your
Speaker:primary job, that could be a significant amount. You can
Speaker:also transfer those shares of stock
Speaker:directly to your nonprofit. Nonprofits.
Speaker:Again, they make this process pretty easy, but you save immediate,
Speaker:save on the capital gains tax and you get
Speaker:gift credits and, you know, and, you know, most importantly,
Speaker:you're supporting, you know, whichever institution that you care most
Speaker:about. That's awesome. That's awesome. So you can just gift
Speaker:stock and they'll, you know, use it however
Speaker:they see fit. That's right. Awesome. Or how
Speaker:you. You could. You can be very specific, too. You could say, hey, I've got
Speaker:$50,000 in Apple stock. And, you know, if I cash in
Speaker:on it right now, you know, I'm going to have a big tax liability. But
Speaker:maybe you, you consider giving that away to university. You could talk with
Speaker:their development team. You could say, I'm interested
Speaker:in learning more about endowing a scholarship or establishing a
Speaker:scholarship. And their team will most certainly work with you on that.
Speaker:Gotcha. Gotcha. Okay, so we have that. And then
Speaker:the other thing I forgot was trust. You can put it in a trust
Speaker:in order to gift that. So thank you so much, Dean. This is a ton
Speaker:of information. I'm even like, oh, I gotta listen to this
Speaker:again. But if people were interested in
Speaker:learning more about you or philanthropic giving
Speaker:or anything of that sort, how could they find you?
Speaker:So I would definitely encourage I am all over LinkedIn often
Speaker:sharing some great tidbits from all the big
Speaker:financial institutions about philanthropy. So I would encourage looking me
Speaker:up online. So it's Dean Castaldo on
Speaker:LinkedIn. You can't miss me. I work both at the Naval Academy
Speaker:foundation but also in the navy and
Speaker:fellow UNCG alum, so that's probably the easiest way to find
Speaker:me. If you'd reach out, connect with me, send me a note, and I'd be
Speaker:happy to connect by phone or email. Awesome. Awesome. Well, thank you so
Speaker:much, Dean, and I'll make sure I have all of that information in the show
Speaker:notes for you so you can just click on the little link and go to
Speaker:Dean's page. So thank you so much for coming on the show
Speaker:and talking about this with us. I know for sure I have never talked
Speaker:about all of these options, so I appreciate the conversation
Speaker:and I'm sure the audience has taken something away from this. So
Speaker:like I said, I appreciate you and I hope you have a wonderful rest of
Speaker:your day. Thanks. Take care. Bye.
Speaker:Thank you for listening, joining and being a part of the Money Talk with TIFF
Speaker:podcast this week. You can check Tiff out every Thursday for a
Speaker:new Money talk podcast, but if you just can't wait until next week,
Speaker:you can listen to previous podcast
Speaker:episodes@moneytalkwitht.com or
Speaker:follow TIFF on all social media platforms at
Speaker:moneytalkwitht. Until next time, spend wise
Speaker:by spending less than you make a word to the money wise is
Speaker:always sufficient.
