Leaving a Legacy

Almost two years after the release of a statewide study on wealth transfer, Community Foundation of the Ozarks Inc. is making strides toward informing area residents on the importance of planned giving through a campaign dubbed The Five Percent Solution. Its intent is to get Ozarks’ residents to consider leaving 5 percent of their estate to a local community foundation.

“This is the largest transferred wealth in the history of man, so it really resonates in our community,” said CFO President Brian Fogle.

The 2013 study determined over the next 10 years baby boomers in the Ozarks would transfer $47.2 billion in wealth. Greene County’s share at that time was $6.65 billion, which, at 5 percent, would amount to $322 million in gifts to charity.

In the last two years, Fogle estimated the nonprofit organization made over 100 presentations on wealth transfers throughout the Ozarks region, and the data has taken root in rural areas.

“It is having some effect on estate planning. The country people are starting to think about that more,” he said. “There are 45 smaller communities around Springfield that are really embracing this as a way to keep legacies alive in those communities.”

Titled Wealth in Missouri and its Counties, the study was commissioned by the Missouri Alliance of Community Foundations. CFO is an alliance member, along with nine other organizations serving 96 of the Show-Me State’s 114 counties. The study was conducted by Lincoln, Neb.-based Center for Rural Entrepreneurship and paid, in part, by a grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, according to the foundation’s website.

A more recent report of county-by-county wealth transfers in the Show-Me State by financial data tracker SmartAsset ranked Greene County at No. 5, tied with Jefferson County. The annual inheritance in Greene County is estimated at $133 million.

Under The Five Percent Solution, this would translate to $6.65 million annually gifted to charity.

St. Louis County topped the list, followed by Jackson and St. Charles counties.

“I believe that is accurate,” Fogle said, noting Greene County’s fifth-place spot is consistent with findings from the Wealth in Missouri study, which reported Jefferson County’s household net worth in 2010 at $21.6 billion, slightly ahead of Greene County’s $21.3 billion.

However, Fogle noted a major difference between the study conducted by SmartAsset and figures reported by the alliance.

“[SmartAsset’s] measurements are based on estate transfers, and there is so much wealth that transfers outside of that,” he said, citing a payable-on-death stock as one such allotment. “Their study doesn’t count everything that ours does. We’re taking into account all net transfers.”

One donor service available through CFO that directly addresses the transfer of wealth is the Legacy Society. Fogle described membership in the 25-year-old society as a commitment that donors will remember charities and philanthropic efforts in their planning.

“It’s an informal commitment,” he said.  “We don’t ask people to put down a number. We feel like that’s their business.”

Louise Knauer, CFO’s senior vice president for communications and marketing, said the Legacy Society has gained 40 members since 2012, and seven of those were in fiscal 2015. She said 5 percent is a benchmark based on the 2013 study.

“We don’t even advocate that people should leave the gifts to us,” she said. “It’s more about creating awareness to consider whatever community or charitable interests they have in their estate plans.”

Leslie Peck, owner of Springfield-based Peck Insurance and Financial Services Inc., is a Legacy Society donor who has designated roughly 5 percent of her planned giving to local organizations, including United Way of the Ozarks, Council of Churches of the Ozarks Inc. and Community Partnership of the Ozarks Inc.

“I’m in the insurance business and have preached planned giving for 30 years. I thought I should practice what I preach,” she said.

“It really doesn’t take a lot to give an endowment, and it’s a wonderful way to perpetuate your gift.”

Peck said endowment gifts benefit select causes and provide a tax advantage for donors.

“Some organizations become dependent on regular contributions from people, and when they die, those go away,” she said, adding donors who feel strongly about their giving often want to ensure that it continues.

Knauer cited a donation by Julia Boyce, a hospice care worker and Missouri transplant from Michigan who upon her death left a planned gift to benefit seniors.

“That gift is now an endowed fund,” Knauer said.

“We apply the annual proceeds from her endowment to a grant cycle we partner on each year with the Greene County Senior Services’ Tax Fund Board.”

Cathy Altenberger, Boyce’s niece, said her aunt spent her life interacting with senior citizens, including 11 years as a hospice medical social worker for Mercy Hospital Springfield.

“She must have seen a need or developed an interest and determination to help the senior citizens of the area,” Altenberger said via email. “I know she made home visits to provide company to seniors who weren’t able to get out, and she really found that meaningful.”

Altenberger, of South Lyon, Mich., said her aunt’s estate had not been finalized, and the annual endowment contribution was not determined.

“Our family finds it gratifying that her fund is established and will help improve the quality of life for senior citizens for years to come in the area that she lived in and enjoyed so much,” Altenberger said.