Many of us struggle to identify the ways in which we can affect change in the world. It is obvious and easy to some, yet daunting to others. This panel will explore insights to enlighten, educate, inspire and motivate the audience in the quest for living an engaged and purposeful life by sharing their own experiences philanthropic action prompted by a health crisis, investing using a socially responsible approach, and through community involvement.
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A growing number of wealth owners around the world are actively involved in impact investing, supporting innovative, commercially viable solutions that drive transformation into a more just and sustainable society. In her new study, Catalyzing Wealth For Change, A Guide to Impact Investing for ultra-high net worth individuals, family offices, foundations and businesses, Dr. Balandina Jacquier explains the field, and provides the insights needed to make informed, confident decisions.
Donors often ask how they can maximize their giving dollars when seeking to fulfill their charitable giving missions. A tax effective way is to donate appreciated securities to a donor advised fund, rather than selling the securities and donating the cash proceeds. So how does it work?
The topic of wealth transfer to the next generation has been well documented. Accenture estimated that $30 trillion of financial and nonfinancial assets are ready to shift from baby boomers to their children in North America alone. At the same time, there is a large and growing appetite for using wealth to solve social challenges and help those in need. In 2015, 98.4% of high net worth families gave to charity, and foundations contributed $57.19 billion to nonprofit causes, a 6.5% increase over 2014.
Families pursue impact investing for a variety of reasons, including as a way to engage younger family members in the broader philanthropic and investment activities of a family to foster continuity in the stewardship of assets across generations. Before incorporating impact investments into their portfolios, families should define the overall contextual framework for their impact investments that focus on purpose, priorities, and principles.
Impact investing continues to garner increasing attention in the financial media and amongst the investing community. While generating shared consensus and arriving at the decision to invest in line with your family values is a great accomplishment, many families face challenges when it comes to moving beyond conversations and formulating an actual implementation plan with key advisors.
For many individuals and families of wealth, there comes a time when they decide to engage in philanthropy in a larger, perhaps more strategic manner. This often occurs as their relationship with wealth matures, and they realize they have an opportunity (or perhaps feel an obligation) to go beyond writing checks to worthy organizations and move toward a deeper engagement in giving that could make a significant impact on the issues they care about. The shift, which can feel overwhelming, can be one of the most rewarding privileges of wealth.
Recently the IRS released proposed regulations under Chapter 14 of the Internal Revenue Code that would severely limit—if not eliminate—the application of valuation discounts, including lack of marketability and minority discounts, to interests in closely held family entities for gift, estate, and generation-skipping transfer tax purposes. If finalized in their current form, the proposed regulations will have a significant impact on future estate planning for high net worth individuals and, potentially, on estate plans which were recently put into place.
The wealthy are caught in the high-beam headlights of toxic rhetoric around equity, inequality, greed, power, excessive affluence, and influence of the wealthiest 1 percent. This has become a hot issue in the political environment, where both old media and new social media continue to add data that fuels the growing anger toward, and mistrust of, wealth. It raises the question of what are realistic responses for those with wealth, the families and individuals who are in the 1 percent, even if their wealth is nowhere on the scale of the very wealthiest.
Entrepreneurs assemble resources, create innovations, develop finance strategies and apply business acumen in an effort to create economic goods and services. The ultimate question is, “How do you instill these attributes in your rising generation?” Ann Dugan, who founded the University of Pittsburgh's Institute for Entrepreneurial Excellence, leads an exploration on how to create an entrepreneurial spirit in the rising generation.