"The highest and best use of capital is not to make more money, but to make money do more for the betterment of life."

These profound words were spoken by Andrew Carnegie. Social Capital can be described as that part of your total wealth, consisting of income and assets that you have earned but are not allowed to keep. According to the Unified Federal Gift and Estate Tax law, once your wealth exceeds $2,000,000, a portion of the excess must be shared with society, i.e. taxes. This portion which you must share is your social capital. Social capital consists of a part that you do not control, government directed or taxes and that part that you may control, self-directed as in charitable trusts. It is the latter that empowers us to direct the fruits of our labor. It allows you to personally and powerfully affect the future and leave a lasting legacy.

By setting up one or more charitable trust instruments, you can personally and powerfully impact your community or other institutions that will perpetuate the principles and values that most accurately reflect your own values.

In effect, you can become a philanthropist by simply choosing to self-direct your social capital or instead choose the default to the government, as in taxes. Of this you can be certain, significance is never accomplished through defaulting to someone else’s agenda!

Therefore, the secret to attaining personal significance, secure in the knowledge that your life has made a difference, is to make the decision to self-direct your Social Capital through a charitable trust or family foundation. And all of this significance can be accomplished without a reduction in current income or disinheriting your children and heirs. It’s all in the planning!

For more information, contact:

Emerald Planning Services, Inc.
573 Millwood Road
Chappaqua, NY  10514-1317
914-241-0707 (voice)
914-864-2300 (fax)  

info@emeraldplanning.com

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