Paul Caspersen, vice president of Charitable Solutions in Gainesville, Fla. -- a planned gift risk management firm -- will be the guest speaker at The Community Foundation of Southwest Louisiana's Continuing Education Seminar. (Special to the American Press)

Continuing education is crucial for maintaining professional licenses and certifications for advisors. These requirements ensure advisors stay current with industry knowledge, best practices and ethical standards.

With this in mind, The Community Foundation of Southwest Louisiana is hosting a Continuing Education Seminar for Attorneys, CPAs and Financial Advisors 8 a.m.-noon Friday, Aug. 22, at L'Auberge Casino Resort.

Paul Caspersen, vice president of Charitable Solutions in Gainesville, Fla. -- a planned gift risk management firm -- will be the guest speaker.

"It's important to bring advisors together to share best practices about the current trends in philanthropy," Caspersen said. "We'll discuss what the trends are at the national level that may effect charitable giving at the local level, what is changing about how people give, and how will new tax laws -- like the one that will start in January -- impact charitable giving next year and beyond."

Advisors are the "nexus of donors making significant decisions that are positive for their community," Caspersen said.

"I think that's where this continuing education comes in," he said. "Tax laws are ever-evolving so it's important to keep track of where the puck is going."

Among the topics Caspersen plans to cover will be how artificial intelligence is changing the way professional advisors address estate planning with their clients in terms of the tools they have now at their disposal.

"I am not a computer scientist I am estate planner, but I am an AI enthusiast," Caspersen said. "What I hope to bring is three things: What is artificial intelligence as we know it? What are some of the tools that are being implemented in the estate-planning world and the software applications? And what is the ethical side of it?"

High-impact charitable strategies will also be discussed.

"Whenever I'm talking about charitable impact and these strategies that have the most impact, what ultimately I distill that down to is what is the cost of the gift to the donor to make this impact for every dollar," he said. "The cost is based on the taxes that either they can avoid -- not evade, but avoid -- and then how can they reduce their income taxes as the result of the charitable income tax deduction. If we can get the cost of the gift down very low then the donor is going to be motivated to give more."

The best way to do that, he said, is to "get a donor and their advisor to be thinking about using assets from the balance sheet, not from the piggy bank."

Caspersen -- formerly a financial advisor -- said he fell into the charitable planning field by chance when asked to lead the gift-planning program at Iowa State University.

"I got introduced by the president of Iowa State University to the foundation. He was a client of mine and he said, 'Would you ever consider fundraising?' It scared the heck out of me but I was at this transition in life where I said, 'You know, why don't I try this.' I started to get compliments from donors and from colleagues and even from advisors that said, 'Man, you really know your stuff. You're good at this.' "

Caspersen said the moment he started hearing positive comments, he knew he had landed in the right industry.

After his stint at Iowa State, he served as assistant vice president and senior philanthropic advisor at the University of Florida, where his gift-planning team closed $1.25 billion in deferred gifts and outright gifts of complex assets.

Caspersen is also the founder of Planned Giving Interactive, a charitable planning software and consulting organization, and the author of "Direction Memo: How to Write a Letter of Instructions for Your Estate Plan."

Secure Act

The Secure Act is two pieces of legislation aimed at enhancing retirement savings and access. The original Secure Act, enacted in 2019, made significant changes to retirement plans -- including raising the required minimum distribution age and allowing some part-time workers to participate in 401(k) plans. Secure Act 2.0, enacted in 2022, further modifies retirement rules, including expanding automatic enrollment in retirement plans, increasing catch-up contributions and providing more flexibility for early withdrawals.

"The Secure Act was this landmark legislation around retirement planning in general and what I'm really going to be focused on when I speak to the advisor crowd is how you can use these retirement plan assets as positive charitable planning strategies."

He said that can be during a donor's lifetime or through their estate plans.

"The reason why retirement plan assets are probably some of the most advantageous assets to give to charity is that charities are tax-exempt," he said. "If you follow the rules that the IRS gives us, nobody has to pay income taxes on these assets that are just a ticking time bomb in terms of taxable income -- whether that's to the IRA owner themselves or even to their children when they leave it behind."

Caspersen said there are other assets one can leave their family members in income taxes would not be required -- such as real estate or shares of Apple stock.

"With those retirement plan assets your kids can't escape the income tax and some kids are going to pay as much as 50 percent on inheriting those retirement plan assets. Wouldn't you want -- even though it takes a little bit away from your kids -- to know that every dollar could have a positive impact on your community? If you made a $50,000 bequest of an IRA, your kid is going to get $25,000 after taxes. Or you can set up an endowment at the Community Foundation. To me, that's a great way to look at charitable planning. You do it at the lowest cost to the donor and it's based on those tax savings."

Community Foundations

The Community Foundation can be "the one-stop shop" for donors.

"The Community Foundation can set up an endowment for all the organizations you want to help ... and it's easier to go through the Community Foundation rather than your will every time you have a change of plans."

Also, if a donor wishes to give to a charity that ultimately shuts down a Community Foundation can help navigate and have a contingency plan in place.

"If you left it directly to that organization, who knows where those assets go if they go out of business," Caspersen said. "The Community Foundation can do so many things that a lot of people don't think about with these scenarios. That's why Community Foundations are so important."

Charitable giving

One of the most important approaches to charitable giving is to establish an endowment.

"Do you want every dollar that you give this charity to be spent right now? Or do you want that charity to be more secure long-term in the future? That's the age old question."

Nine times out of 10, the charity would be better off if the money were put into an endowment for them, he said.

"They're only going to get 5 percent of the principle each year from that endowment -- on average -- but that will grow over time. The more endowment they have, the more secure of a nonprofit it will be."

Caspersen said he's excited to sharing best practices with the advisors who attend the conference.

"I want them to think about charitable planning just a little more. They can't control how much their client donates but they will be surprised that when they suggest different strategies how many clients will be receptive to that. Sometimes are just waiting to hear about ways to make a impact."

For more information on the seminar, visit foundationswla.org/ceu-form