Planned giving is the process of combining your personal, tax and estate goals to include a long-term charitable gift. It is often a tax-driven process of designing gifting arrangements that realize philanthropic objectives in a way that achieves maximum financial benefit for the donor and the charity.
It is a choice between paying taxes and making a gift - voluntary versus involuntary philanthropy. The concept of social capital has expanded the definition of wealth, revealing that we have a choice - and the power - to direct how assets we will not be allowed to keep ultimately will be distributed and used. We can regain control over the loss to taxes.
Recognition and understanding of social capital expands the role of philanthropy in estate planning. It manifests itself in the form of tax or charitable gifts.