As a trusted estate planning attorney at Moore & Van Allen, Sara Page Waugh has seen firsthand how charitable planning can deepen a family’s legacy far beyond tax strategy. For years, she has partnered with Foundation For The Carolinas to help clients articulate their values, navigate complex gifts and engage the next generation in meaningful philanthropy. Now a member of FFTC’s Cabinet of Professional Advisors, Waugh shares how this collaboration empowers her clients, strengthens community impact and offers advisors a powerful ally in charitable planning.

Describe your relationship with Foundation For The Carolinas.

Foundation For The Carolinas has been an integral part of my legal practice since I started at Moore & Van Allen. FFTC’s educational events and materials were a significant resource as I learned about various charitable structures and planning techniques. As I began advising clients directly, FFTC provided me with the tools not only to discuss the tax planning elements of charitable planning with clients but also to help clients evaluate their charitable goals, their approach to instilling their values in later generations, and their overall philanthropic legacy. I am honored to have recently joined FFTC’s Cabinet of Professional Advisors, which provides a unique forum for advisors and FFTC to share the needs and desires of the nonprofit community and donors in the greater Charlotte community and discuss opportunities to address these needs.

What value does your partnership with FFTC bring to your clients?

Most of my clients have charitable goals and intentions. However, some may not have the time to fully vet organizations or learn about emerging needs of the community, while others have an asset base consisting of difficult to transfer assets. By partnering with FFTC, its extremely talented staff help me to explore and suggest creative solutions to achieve my client’s goals – from advising clients about FFTC’s Field of Interest Funds, allowing clients to participate in a collective giving model that supports a cause close to their heart without requiring them to individually vet each organization, to putting in place the framework to donate real property or closely-held business interests without costly tax consequences or the unnecessary liquidation of unique assets. For many younger clients or clients who have recently moved to the Carolinas, introducing clients to FFTC provides them with a resource that can educate them about how to choose and evaluate charities to support, inform them about the emerging needs of the community, connect them with nonprofits with which they can volunteer or otherwise be engaged, and provide them with a community of like-minded individuals.

How do you encourage clients to include charitable giving in their estate plans?

If I’m being completely honest, the conversation usually begins with a discussion of the estate tax implications of a plan without a charitable component. Nevertheless, in fleshing out what the charitable piece of their estate plan looks like, we end up discussing many of the values that they wish to instill in their heirs and what their legacy should be after death. After being presented with various options, many clients choose to establish a donor advised fund with FFTC, which gives them a vehicle both during lifetime to engage and educate their children about charitable giving, and at death to provide their children with a “charitable pocketbook” thereby encouraging their children to continue pursuing their philanthropic goals without the children worrying about their ability to contribute their own assets. A properly structured charitable plan allows the approximately 40% of their assets that would have gone to the IRS in the form of estate tax to instead be available for the next generation to continue both the client’s financial and philanthropic legacy.

What would you share with professional advisors who haven’t yet partnered with FFTC?

FFTC’s staff are some of the most knowledgeable people in the charitable space that I have ever met, let alone worked with. Their awareness not only of the seemingly ever-changing legal aspects of charitable giving but also the long-term and immediate needs of the community give me confidence that any plan (lifetime or testamentary) involving FFTC will be administered correctly, will adhere to my client’s wishes and will significantly impact the community. Furthermore, FFTC’s flexibility and willingness to engage in creative solutions allows me to structure a plan that maximizes my client’s goals and the community impact in a manner that may not be achievable with another charitable partner.

Advisors play a crucial role in shaping their clients’ legacies. Connect with FFTC to access resources, collaborate on creative solutions and make a lasting community impact by visiting fftc.org/advisor_resources.