A Call To Leadership

EP270: Living Generously with Adam Hautly

• Dr. Nate Salah

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What if your giving could be both spiritually fulfilling and financially strategic? In this episode, we will explore how to live generously through donor-advised funds, real estate donations, anonymous gifts, and multi-generational planning—all while keeping the heart of stewardship at the center. They challenge the idea that generosity is only about money and show how it can be a lifestyle rooted in purpose. Whether you're a seasoned giver or just getting started, this episode will shift how you think about wealth, impact, and legacy. Listen in to discover smarter ways to give and why it matters now more than ever.


 Key Takeaways To Listen For

  • The difference between charitable giving and charitable living
  • A simple way to check if your giving is from the heart
  • Why true generosity isn’t about hitting a number, it’s about fulfilling a calling
  • How to give and receive up to 100% back in your state
  • Why the best time to create a giving plan is July, not December


 Resources Mentioned In This Episode


About Adam Hautly
Adam Hautly’s passion for finance started early at just eight years old, he was captivated by interest rate tables and knew numbers would play a major role in his future. After serving as CFO in his family’s fourth-generation cheese distribution business, he transitioned into financial services to help others find clarity, confidence, and purpose in their financial lives. Now with Thrivent, Adam takes a holistic planning approach, partnering with clients and their advisors to align every piece of the financial puzzle—from investments to legacy giving. He’s especially passionate about weaving generosity into financial strategies through tools like donor-advised funds and multi-generational charitable planning. At home, Adam is a devoted husband, proud father of two, and happiest when he’s cooking for friends and family in his St. Louis kitchen—or relaxing at Table Rock Lake with loved ones.


 Connect with Adam

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To learn more, visit our website at www.greatsummit.com.
For tax, bookkeeping, or accounting help, contact Dr. Nate’s team at www.theincometaxcenter.com or send an email to info@theincometaxcenter.com.


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[00:00:00] Dr. Nate Salah
Hello my friend, and welcome to this episode of A Call to Leadership. I'm Dr. Nate Salah, your host—so glad you are here. In this episode, we're going to unpack some financial tools for your tool belt. What does a generous life look like? What does living generously look like? We believe in generosity, but sometimes we don't really understand how it shows up in our lives. I've invited an expert in this area—my dear friend and colleague in the financial services sector—Adam Hautly with Thrivent. He’s going to have a wonderful dialogue with me about different ways we can be generous—not just with our money, but with our time and talents, and even a few strategies on maximizing our ability to give generously. Can't wait for you to listen in. This is A Call to Leadership. Adam Hautly, thanks for being on the show.


[00:01:03] Adam Hautly
Thank you very, very much. I'm so honored and blessed to be here. And for those of you who are listening, we're recording about two weeks before tax day, and here Nate is hosting podcasts instead of working on tax returns. I mean that in a complimentary way—the way you've set up your practice and your team as well. Here you get to, on a Monday—15 days, but who’s counting—you’ve got one of those candy cane countdowns, right? Like an Advent calendar. To be able to do this on a Monday in the thick of tax season is such a testament to how you’ve set up your practice.


[00:01:43] Dr. Nate Salah
Thank you, my friend. Well, time will tell from here to the 15th if it was a wise choice. Truth be told, kudos to the team. Our accounting and advisory—this is year number 30—and it's because of the team that I'm able to do this and share these wonderful, inspiring conversations with our listeners to add value to their lives. And you've added value to my life over the last few years. In fact, I remember meeting you, and many listeners all over the world may not know this, but here in this part of the world, there's a cheese company, Hautly Cheese. I can always see the little red cheese enclosure. Is it always red? Or are there different colors?


[00:02:28] Adam Hautly
You're talking about our Gouda.


[00:02:30] Dr. Nate Salah
Yeah—your Gouda cheese. That's so good. I always think, since you come from that environment and you're going to share a little about moving from there into financial services, that the cheese business should have a complementary product—like laxatives, just in case. Maybe I shouldn't have said that. But hey, if you're not human. You know, it happens—a little too much cheese.


[00:02:57] Adam Hautly
I’m very blessed to be married to a plumber’s daughter. So, it worked out really well. Yeah. I was with our family company. My great-grandfather started it back in 1934. We did cheese, dairy—anything that could be on a refrigerated truck. For a time, we were able to distribute to local grocery stores here. It was awesome. I was our CFO starting in about 2008. It’s interesting—in the grocery world, during a financial situation like 2008, business went very well. When people struggled through losing jobs or financial concerns, they stopped going out to eat and went to our customers—the grocery chains here in St. Louis. So I came in as our CFO, was there for about five years, then transitioned—through some amazing conversations with my dad, who was third generation; I was fourth—into personal finance. I’ve been with Thrivent that entire time. And here we are—10 years later.


[00:04:04] Dr. Nate Salah
Yeah, man. And no holes in your financial cheese, right? 


[00:04:08] Adam Hautly
Just the Swiss. Yeah, no holes in the financials.


[00:04:10] Dr. Nate Salah
We’re both dads. I know, right? I guess dad jokes are just another way to say “jokes that aren't funny.” Maybe.


[00:04:19] Adam Hautly
I made a few of those earlier today. I was at a store, and the person helping me was not very amused.


[00:04:25] Dr. Nate Salah
Didn't land?


[00:04:26] Adam Hautly
Didn’t land. I had to explain. “Is this thing on?” That’s the dad joke test.


[00:04:30] Dr. Nate Salah
That’s all right. You get to an age where you really don’t care. That’s kind of nice. Don’t laugh? That’s fine. I’ll probably forget this conversation in a week. One of the things we love to discuss in our community—and in our calling for stewardship—is generosity. We have our G3 program under our Great Summit umbrella of leadership excellence and development. The first G stands for “Grow purposefully.” We want people to grow not just with purpose but full of purpose. That’s what Jesus said: “I have come so that you may have life and have it to the full.” Purpose-fully. Our second G is “Give generously” because we believe if you can grow, then your time, talent, and treasures—your multiplication—can be turned around to bless others.


[00:05:33]
 In fact, our third G is “Go,” as in “Go love radically,” because that was Jesus’s model. His love was the antithesis of what we expected—it raised the bar to the highest possible level. And interestingly, about this second tier—giving—my son asked me years ago, I don’t know how old he was, maybe eight or nine. He said, “Dad, is it wrong to want to be rich? I mean, really rich.” I remember we were sitting across the kitchen table, and I started laughing. I was like, you had to qualify it—not just rich, but really rich. And that’s exactly how he said it: “I mean, really rich.” You could just see his eyes turn into dollar signs. And I said, “You know what, son? That’s a great question.” At the time—now he’s 18 in just a few weeks—so we’re talking about a decade ago. I had already been in business about 20 years. I’d seen a lot of people, financially speaking—people who were completely destitute, to those who never had to work another day in their life, and everyone in between. And I said, “Son, the number of zeroes in someone’s bank account doesn’t impress me. What’s truly remarkable is what we do with our financial increase to bless others and to make the world better.” 


[00:06:38]
That’s really what I believe the purpose of wealth is—not to hoard it, or to be consumed by the love of money. Because as Scripture says, the love of money is the root of all kinds of evils. Not money itself. It’s the love of it. Truth be told, the love of chocolate could be the root of all kinds of evils. The love of fancy cars—did I just say that? Anything that becomes an idol. So I believe one of the antidotes to that is to be generous. By the way, in my opinion—and not only mine; I believe it’s scriptural—we are simply stewards. We’re caretakers. Because as you know, and we’ve said this before, it’s rare—although it might’ve happened—that you see a Brinks truck following a hearse to the cemetery. “Just bury it with me.” Maybe in the Pharaoh days that used to happen. So I believe we have an obligation, a responsibility, to be good stewards of what we’re entrusted with. Not just money but time and talents.


[00:07:53]
However, today we’re talking about all the ways that we can be generous—if we’re in that place to be generous. And you’ve got a lot of experience in this space, unpacking different ways people may not have heard about, or maybe they have and they don’t really understand them. We want to give people understanding, and perhaps a blessing in that. Because as Scripture says, “Blessed is the generous giver.” So—it’s your turn. I’m just going to sit here and listen for the next 45 minutes.


[00:08:49] Adam Hautly
I love that. I love that you shared that we are stewards with what we were blessed with. It’s not our money—it’s what we were given by God. And what we do with it is ultimately the way we bless others. It’s funny because your son said he wanted to be “really rich.” And both you and I have seen very wealthy people be very miserable. Sometimes, it stems from the fear of losing what they’ve amassed. And yet, you see people who may not have healthy finances, but they’re happy as all get-out. Ultimately, as you said, worshiping something in this world doesn’t lead to fulfillment. That fulfillment comes from giving to others. When you mentioned time, talents, treasures—I love those three ways to share. I think of it in terms of my own life—I have young kids. And when you talk to people who may not feel financially secure, especially when they’re in the thick of parenting, trying to make the house payment, pay the bills, get the kids to their activities—that’s not free. There’s often a disclaimer I give to young families. I ask, “Do you have a charitable urge?” Because I don’t want them to feel like the question is, “Are you giving away money?”


[00:10:09]
That ability to say, “Hey, if I’m not in a place where I feel comfortable giving money, that doesn’t mean I can’t be generous”—that’s powerful. I love your second pillar: “Give Generously.” We have a program within Thrivent called an Action Team. It doesn’t matter your financial relationship with Thrivent. If you have a Thrivent policy or product, you can take $500 across two events—we call them Action Teams. We send you volunteer t-shirts, and across the front it says “Live Generously.”


[00:11:18] Dr. Nate Salah
I love it.


[00:11:20] Adam Hautly
If you ever see someone walking around in a “Live Generously” t-shirt, that came from a Thrivent Action Team. The colors change every year—kind of like a collect-’em-all thing. But the point is: we’re giving clients $250 twice a year to go support charitable actions. It could be raising money for a church. It could be helping a neighbor who needs lawn care. You can put together a team, buy the supplies—bags, clippers, whatever—and get pizza for the crew. Everybody walks away with a “Live Generously” t-shirt. It’s pretty cool.


[00:12:00] Dr. Nate Salah
 That's awesome, and I really appreciate the way you described the urge. Some people feel as though they should be giving more, and maybe they don't have the means to—financially, at this point. However, there are other ways to be generous. I won’t get into the ways we can multiply and increase even small amounts—well, I guess we could talk about it. Even with, like you said, a family, I remember when we were just trying to get by. There was a need to provide for others, and I didn’t really have a lot of disposable income. I considered it a sacrifice, and yet I took a leap of faith and said, “Okay God, here it is.” I wasn’t asking for ten times in return. However, there’s a trust-God factor in that as well. It depends on a lot of different pieces to this equation of life and what we're experiencing. I have found, especially in a family context, to do our best not to just have a certain number. You know, people say, “I’ve got to give 10%.” But it’s interesting because Jesus didn’t put a number on generosity. 


[00:13:52]
Of course, the woman with two mites comes to mind. I can’t remember what the exact amount was, but essentially, she gave all she had. And the Pharisees, who had more money, gave in a way that made a loud noise when their coins hit the donation box—they wanted to be noticed. Jesus said she was the true giver, even though it was a much smaller amount. So, it's not necessarily about the amount—it’s about the condition of your heart. That’s a really important piece of this idea of generosity. Am I in a place where I have compassion for others who are less fortunate? And do I want to be a part of their blessing? That’s a different mindset than saying, “Well, if I don’t have 10%, I guess I won’t give anything.” I don’t think it’s about that. And especially in the financial services sector, let’s not focus on, “Oh, I didn’t give $10,000 this year, so I’m a loser.” It’s not that. Give a dollar.


[00:14:54] Adam Hautly
Where your heart stems from is such an important part of giving. At Thrivent, as a faith-based financial services company, we often have conversations with families who want to give generously. And they’ll say, “I know I’m supposed to tithe.” I like to pause there and ask, “Where does that resonate with you?” Then they’ll say, “No, no, I’m supposed to tithe. Am I tithing on my gross or my net? Is it after deductions, insurance, 401k, or taxes?” Am I after taxes? Yeah, yeah, yeah. And it's not that takes I, I think some of the powerfulness out of it when you're trying to hit a number instead of a purpose. 


[00:15:49]
One thing that people are very familiar with is a charitable giving strategy—creating an actual plan for giving. I think that's helpful and important. But one thing I want people to realize is there's also something called a charitable living strategy. That probably includes the financial giving most people think about, but it allows for more integration into your life. It’s not just a checkbox you tick after filing your taxes to say, “Okay, that’s how much we had to give this year.” It also includes the ability to give while you're living, as opposed to someone coming in and saying, “Here’s what I want my legacy to be. I want it to include something charitable, as well as taking care of the next generation.” Understanding that you can give throughout your life—and that doesn’t just have to be money—is freeing. And if it is money, it doesn’t always have to be about those checkboxes. I believe (and I don’t know the exact statistics, so I could be wrong) that finance is one of the most talked-about topics in the Bible.


[00:17:08]
So if you’re concerned that making money or being financially successful might be against the will of God, maybe it’s time to change your relationship with money. In my devotion a couple of mornings ago, I read the story of the master who went away for a period of time and entrusted three of his servants with money. One got five talents, one got two, and one got one. When the master returned, the servant with five had doubled it. The one with two had also doubled it. But the servant with one said, “I know you’re conservative in nature, so I dug a hole and buried it to preserve it. Here’s your one back.” That was looked upon very unfavorably by the master. So, if that’s a lesson in the Bible, then why can’t we talk about money? Just like your son said, “I want to make a lot of money.” Well, that desire is biblically sound. And when it’s done with the right heart, it gives you permission to be charitable—whatever that may mean to you.


[00:18:27] Dr. Nate Salah
That’s one of my favorite parables on multiplying and increasing what we’re entrusted with. It’s interesting because all three were servants. The third one buried the money out of fear. Another version says, “You are a hard master.”


[00:18:53] Adam Hautly
Yeah, like he filled out the risk tolerance questionnaire and checked “zero risk.”


[00:19:01] Dr. Nate Salah
Exactly. The challenge was that they were instructed to invest it—to multiply it. It wasn’t even their money; it was the master’s. They were told to go out and multiply it. And the reward for the one who made ten and the one who made four—it wasn’t even about the multiplication factor. You’re not going to receive a different reward based on how much performance you had in your portfolio for God. It’s about whether you actually did the work and lived generously. One of the things I love about that story is that it’s all about the heart of the community. Because there are two responses: if you multiply what you’re entrusted with, you hear, “Well done, good and faithful servant. Come and dine with your master.” But if you bury it out of fear, you hear, “You wicked and lazy servant.” And you’re cast out. Let’s just call it what it is. It’s a little lazy to say, “I’m not going to do anything with what I’ve been given.” It’s okay if the multiplication doesn’t work out the way you thought. That’s not your job. Your job is to be obedient. But often, we operate out of fear. This is a great conversation about the fear of not living generously. That fear is rooted in scarcity rather than abundance. “I’m afraid there’s not going to be enough”—in this case, not enough of the Master’s love or grace. And God is saying, in this story, “You’ll have that. Just give. I’ll take care of the rest. It's easy.”


[00:21:43] Adam Hautly
When you consider what I have to give, and I want to be clear—I’m not speaking negatively about people who tithe as their generosity goal. That’s a fantastic place to be if you're doing it from your heart. We’re also told that saving for our future is important. But when giving becomes just an expense in your budget and not a gift from your heart, I think it starts to lose what God truly wants us to do with sharing. If you're saying, “I gave my $10 out of my $100 income this week, and now that’s really going to pinch me for the mortgage,” then maybe we’re thinking about it the wrong way. It’s great to feel the pinch of sacrifice. But when it becomes about hitting a number—as your son said, about how many zeroes are at the end—then it's less about blessing others and more about self-validation.


[00:23:03] Dr. Nate Salah
That's right. And to me, the focus, when the focus is, oh, I'm doing my duty, or,  I, I feel good about myself because I was really generous. This goes back to the, and by the way, that wasn't a parable. This goes back to Jesus watching the lady go to give her her money versus the actual Pharisees doing it because they wanted to feel pretty proud of their, their investment. You say, well, hey, isn't it. Isn't it really my work? I mean, I'm the one who took the risk. I'm the one who saved the money. I'm the one who did X, Y, and Z, right? I would say have a conversation with God. You should take that up with God. I'm not your God. You're not their God. Right? Look at, go to scripture. See what scripture says about. Wealth and how we treat,  what we're entrusted with. I think it says it's all a gift from God.


[00:24:06]
 So, you know, the Bible says that the God causes the rain to fall on the good and, and, and the unrighteous. Right. It's, he's blessing all of us. And so I don't wanna take ownership of that, you know, even though, yeah, I worked hard. You've worked hard, Adam. We worked, I mean, really hard and,  okay, great. There's, there's a harvest. I don't wanna take credit for the harvest. I don't want, all I wanna do is take credit for allowing God to use me. Like God, the credit I get is really just coming back to you. In other words, saying, and thank you. Thank you for choosing me. Thank you for choosing me to have this abundance to turn around. And then give it back to you through this, these different ways, these different ministries or these different opportunities or these different needs. What an honor. 

[00:25:03] Adam Hautly
I think if anybody's ever struggling with knowing whether or not they're giving, you know, from the heart. I think, you know, for instance, a lot of donations nowadays or, or, or charitable giving is, you know, done electronically and as something as absolutely simple as there's a little box before you hit any donation, and it says, do you wish to make this gift anonymous? Or, if you uncheck that box, then your name's gonna be displayed, you know, sometimes with your amount and things like that. And I  challenge anybody who just wants to know if they're doing that from the heart and for the right reason. If you question whether or not you are, it can feel great to bless others, but hit that anonymous box. And just know that you will never, ever get thanked for that on this planet, but knowing that you or you and your family got to do that and nobody else had to know is pretty powerful.


[00:26:05] Dr. Nate Salah
Indeed. Yeah. It reminds me what years ago at a church I went to, I had a pastor who, worship pastor who would talk about when you received your accolades right, from people he said, he'd say, oh, I got, I already got my rewards. You know, I got my rewards. Now. I don't get my rewards in heaven. And it's, it's, this is what Jesus is talking about. And when we are seeking the approval and the accolades of ban, then, we've already got a reward. Okay? That's who you, that's who you wanted to impress. Congratulations. And, hey, look, I'm guilty as charged. Like this is not like, you know, super pious, Adam and H show. This is like, you know, we, we've been there. Maybe you, maybe you haven't. You're a pretty, I you're a pretty pious guy. I think. I think I even saw you walking like two feet above the above, above the ground when you walked in. 


[00:26:58] Adam Hautly
I bring a vat of water, just so I, I, no, I, I, I often joke that my wife and I are, are family. We are my worst client and that includes, you know, stepping back and taking time for us to get on that same page. And I think getting on the same page and then also executing those actions. So if it is, you know, hey, I, I do want to give away this much this year because that's something that, you know, we decided together, you know, like the cobbler shoes, oftentimes I forget to go back and focus on the two of us. And I think sometimes the best time to, you know, create those strategies is not when you're, you know, pushing up against a December 31st, charitable giving tax strategy, but instead saying, Hey, maybe it's, I dunno, mid-July and we're gonna, you know, spend a little bit of time on our family vacation just talking about.


[00:27:53] 
Who and, and who do we wanna bless and what do we wanna bless them with this year? Yeah. because ultimately if you are doing that outwardly with your family, not in a braggadocious way, but you know, talking about,  charitable living strategies with, you know, especially young kids, then that's instilled in them at such a young age. And a lot of the tools that you get to use nowadays,  from a charitable giving strategy can be multi-generational. I. How amazing is it that if you, you know, do have,, large wishes of, of giving away financial means,  that can be something that your kids and your grandkids and your great-grandkids can participate and, and feel that same amazingness. You get to even set some of those things up ahead of time where you say, Hey, I want this to always be anonymous, or, you know, I want this to always, you know, adhere to these values. I think that's such a cool and powerful thing. And if you can start that at a young age, you know, my kids as we're recording this, my kids are, are six and eight, if my wife and I can spend time teaching them to be charitable now when they have the couple dollars that, you know, grandma and grandpa gave them for cleaning their house or something, you know, the, the little chores that they get to do and stuff. I think that's such a cool lesson. They get to learn way early and it instills in them for the rest of their lives. 


[00:29:21] Dr. Nate Salah
Absolutely. A hundred percent. And we'll, we'll get into shortly the different ways that can, we, can, we can give because, or live generously, which include other ways besides money, of course, you know, property and, and securities, et cetera, et cetera. A lot of different ways that can be,  tied into that and, and involving the family. So, so, so helpful. I remember. I, I had this 30 days of love that my son and I did a few years ago, and we just did 30 days before,  Christmas and every day we just wanted to be generous. We wanna live generously in different ways. None of it was actual cash. Some of it was, Hey, your,  your, your, your grandmother needs, her lawn mower. Let's go do that today we wanted, let's go take some food downtown and, and feed the homeless. Let's, you know, let's go take donuts to the. Police station up the street, let's just, let's give, send some pizzas anonymously to somewhere else.


[00:30:18]
 The fire firehouse, right? All these different things. That were just creative ways to begin to think about living generously and then carry it on throughout the year. Don't, you know, can make it a habit. And maybe it's not every single day, but it becomes more of like, you know, let me think about that. What's a, what's a way I can be generous because my goodness, living generously. Think about a world. That lives generously. Those are some of the ways on an individual level. Now, do we get a charitable contribution deduction? No, and that's another thing. It's like sometimes you do, sometimes you don't. Of course people say, well, I wanna, you know, contribute to a, you know, qualified charitable organization, a 501 C3, and others say, you know, maybe I'll do a little of that.


[00:31:00]
 Maybe I don't care. Maybe there's just a family in need and I'm just gonna give them. Whatever, some holiday dinner or something like that, right? Some, some clothes, a gift card, et cetera, et cetera. So those are, you know, those are totally up to you whether or not you take advantage of the tax code. Some people say, well, I don't wanna do that. I feel like I'm giving less if I take advantage of the tax code. So I wanna smack 'em and say, no, it's called wise strategic planning, because now what you'll be able to do is have more. Because if you're in a 30% tax bracket, let's just throw a number out there and you give a hundred dollars and there's a $30 back to you. Then if you want, give that $30 back, there's $130. And of course then, you know, just a remainder of money, et cetera, et cetera. But the, the concept is, okay, well what are some strategic ways that I can and, live generously? And I'd love to, to share some of those ways that you've,  that you have in your, in your wheelhouse. For people to do that. 


[00:32:04] Adam Hautly
Yeah. Thank you. I had a client as we were talking through one of these strategies not too long ago, and they said, well, I, I don't want to do that strategy. And I was explaining as we were explaining a donor-advised fund, just as a great example. And I said, that's totally fine. You know, whatever you feel is your method of generosity, but can I ask you why? And she turned to me and she said, well. Give to God. What is God give to Caesar? What is Caesar's? And I know this person well enough that I was able to return to her. Well, Caesar wrote the laws that lets you give like this, so maybe we can take advantage of this and it'll make your giving that much more impactful.


[00:32:47] Dr. Nate Salah
Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. So that's one. You know, you mentioned the donor-advised funds, we call 'em dfs. And so what a great way to,  to make charitable contributions without feeling the, the rush of figuring out who or what charity I want to contribute to. Before, you know, 1231, that's always a big deadline for people. And we get the, you get the list of charities, you got 'em all out on the table and like, oh, how much are we gonna give here? How much are we. Hey, we're almost outta time. And you know, the spouse is like, Hey, did we give or what? You know, we gotta make sure we catch that deadline. 


[00:33:21] Adam Hautly
Well, and and, and the funny part is that, that I was the development director for a, a charity here in St. Louis.  and, and my timing couldn't have been worse. It was right after the standard deduction doubled and people had to go back to the only giving with their heart thing,  for a lot of times. But as we, through budgeting and things like that, the charities. Your church, your school, they are so grateful for those large donations. And if you can set a way that you split that large donation periodically throughout the year and they know about it coming in, it allows for them to operate on a budget versus a hope that on December 31st, they're gonna get this influx of cash. And so, you know, understanding, you know, yes, I, I know that some strategies for nonprofits are you,  have the monthly automatic deduction from your, you know, checking account or, or perhaps a credit card.


[00:34:20]
 And that's great.  half the time you forget about that after a year, and it still comes in and it helps support some amazing causes. But even if you go back with some of these strategies and say, Hey, I am going to be strategic with the lump sum. But then allow the charity to have it over the course of, you know, a longer period of time.  or, or maybe a frequent period of time. It allows for them to operate in ways that, in the same way that, you know, your income is coming in,  as long as you're working for instance,  it's same way with,  what they get to do then with those,  blessings that you're giving them. 


[00:34:56] Dr. Nate Salah
Yeah. What a great concept and thanks for sharing that, that, that these charities do. Rely if you're gonna give anyway. Yeah. Why, why wait till 1231? Right. Right. Yeah, that's a great point. Like, hello. 


[00:35:12] Adam Hautly
Well, and, and, and you know, a charity is, is a, a is just like you and I,  you know, if you get a large lump sum, there is a much easier. Ability to spend that quickly. Whereas if you get to spread that out, , then you get to be strategic with it. And,  and I think that allows for their operating budgets to be, you know, absolutely polished compared to the, you know, individual lump sums and stuff like that. , you know, I know that kind of goes in the face of what I said a minute ago where you hit the anonymous donation and stuff. If you can let a charity know that, hey, this is. It's gonna come in on a regular basis or, or these dollars are coming in, it allows for them to plan. 


[00:35:52] Dr. Nate Salah
So this is great. So there's a lot of different ways that people can live generously besides cash. Let's talk about some of those, those ways. 


[00:36:02] Adam Hautly
Yeah. , I'm gonna start from the most simple and then we'll kind of go up to maybe some of the more complex stuff that,  that we get to see at Thrivent. There's a, a, an organization here in St. Louis.  it's called Home Sweet Home. Amazing organization. They help people who are transitioning from either sheltered living or homelessness into permanent housing. And part of their program is, or the, the majority of their program is accepting furniture and household donations. I. And then their clients, which are the people that are, they're that they're serving, their clients get to come in and shop. And so what you're doing is, it's not always that you're donating money. You could be donating that piece of furniture that's kind of sat in the back, in the storage area in the basement, and you're gonna get rid of it, but. You're gonna put it on, I dunno, Facebook marketplace for 10 bucks or whatever it is. Well, organizations like that can help you declutter. And give you the ability to bless somebody else with something that. No, you may not get to write that off on your itemized deductions on Schedule A, but,  that is something that you can donate and, and really make an impact.


[00:37:15]
 So there's, there's incredible organizations that are doing a lot of things like that where you're donating maybe things that you would otherwise not use. , that may be just sitting around. Then you start to get into donating what people normally think about, which would be donating cash, writing the check either at the end of the year or giving your offering to church and things like that. That's great. And the IRS has some really beneficial, as, as, as you have helped countless people over the past 30 years, there are some great rules within the IRS limits that allow you to be charitable from a tax efficient way. Some of the ones that I, I think people don't always know about just yet,  or maybe have heard of and just aren't familiar with the concept, , are what we just talked about, for instance, which is a donor-advised fund.


[00:38:03] Dr. Nate Salah
You know what, before you get to that. Yeah. What at the state level too, guys, if you're listening and you're, you're, you're wanting to donate,  cash dollars at the state level, whatever state you're in, like for example, here in Missouri, there are a number of charitable organizations that you would be able to get. 50% cash back, 70% some up to a hundred percent. Yes, you heard me right? That means that, and of course this will be in tax,  tax credits against your tax liability, of course, consult your accountant. However, that almost sounds insane, right? So I'm going to donate a hundred dollars and on my tax return for my state, you, you're gonna take a hundred dollars off of my, my tax bill. That is correct. And of course you can research the different,  different credits in your, in your, in your home state. It's,  it's pretty exciting to think about that, right? You're just like, well, wait a minute. Am I really giving? This goes back to the original concept. Now, now you'll have another a hundred dollars so that you can give to someone else.


[00:39:04] Adam Hautly
Yeah. Yeah. That's great. And, and I think it brings up a great, If you, you know, today what we'll talk about is the 30,000 foot, you know, couple details of some of those 30,000 foot strategies when you are working with,  an advisor, a tax advisor especially, who knows what they're doing, and I don't mean this just as a commercial for Nate, but if you work with a tax advisor that knows some of those strategies and is familiar with them and has resources, and if they don't know, they're willing to learn. Then it saves you from having to go back and try to research it all yourself because you're probably gonna get some conflicting information and such.  and so a, a, a great tax advisor is absolutely,  crucial in, in understanding some of these. I don't mean to say complex generosity strategies, because they're ultimately not really complex. They just have a couple extra steps than what you're used to as far as writing a, a, a check and putting it in the mail to,  your favorite charity or your church. Makes sense? 


[00:40:13] Dr. Nate Salah
Yeah. Good, good, good plug.  and, and there are, there are wonderful firms all around the, the nation and, and, and abroad. Just have the conversation.


[00:40:24] Adam Hautly
Yeah, it starts with a question.  don't start that question on April 14th, please.  yeah, maybe April 16th or after the 17th. 


[00:40:32] Dr. Nate Salah
Yeah, the 17th. Give a day of rest. Even the Bible says one day. 


[00:40:38] Adam Hautly
But that could be part of that, you know, a a as I, you know, briefly mentioned a, a minute ago, maybe that's part of your July family vacation conversation. Well, cool. While you're, you know, finishing up while you're flying home or driving home.  maybe shoot an email or a, a, a message to your accountant and say, Hey, I'd love to explore some tax strategies. And if you have a dollar in my amount in mind and your professional knows about your financial situation, they can often even be more strategic on top of that. They're probably very happy to,  give you some general information, but if you say, Hey, you know, we talked about this. We want to donate X number of dollars. You know, to me that allows for some planning above and beyond just a, I'd like to be charitable. What are my options? 


[00:41:21] Dr. Nate Salah
Yeah. And, and since we're on the subject of this donor advised fund, talk a little bit about. What can be put into that? Can securities appreciated? Securities be put into it? Can real estate, what can be put into it? 


[00:41:32] Adam Hautly
Yeah, it's funny.  you know, Thrivent serves,  over a million clients and we have an entire extension called Thrivent Charitable. And Thrivent Charitable is unbelievable. We get to work with them on a daily basis for all of this charitable strategy stuff. And so I asked,    some of my colleagues over at Thrivent Charitable. I said, you know. What's the oddest thing that you've ever seen? Donated? And I'll explain what I mean here in a minute. With the donation and they've had livestock,  we have, you know,  clients that are farmers and they may be passing,  livestock, of course land. Highly appreciated securities real estate. But my favorite was, was the. Pigs and cows got donated one time Sold. Old Yeller. Yeah. so with a donor-advised fund, it, it really is a advantageous and,  I'll say,  very approachable way to, in essence, sort of create your own foundation. Um. A company like Thrivent, for instance,  many financial services companies,  do this extremely well as well. But a, a company like Thrivent would accept your donation into your own fund.


[00:42:53]
 It takes a couple minutes to set it up. I think the most difficult part about setting up a donor-advised fund is just choosing the name, you know, is it the hotly family fund? You know, those kind of things are, are very simple to set up. Then the professional that you're working with can help walk you through how to do all the other stuff. You don't have to worry about it. Where it can become impactful is,  there are things like charitable bundling strategies where we're saying, Hey, if we want to be advantageous from a tax perspective, we can maybe donate two years of charitable contributions, sandwich it in one year. Maybe that gets us above the standard deduction. Yeah. And the following year we donate nothing to our donor advise fund. Our church or charity, the organization that we're serving does still get to get that in that second year, for instance,  because it's wrapped up inside that donor-advised fund. Very smart. There's not a timeframe necessarily that you have to get the donations out of the donor-advised fund and into the hands of your church or charity.


[00:44:01]
 And, and Nate, you just mentioned it a minute ago, it's a great case in point if you're going, oh gosh. We're getting out the party hats. We're, you know, setting up the, the pots and pans to bang on December 31st. Did we do the, the charitable donation? You know, you may not know where some of those dollars are going just yet, and you don't have to know. It's about the dollar amount that you gave from your heart. Into, for instance, your donor-advised fund. 


[00:44:28] Dr. Nate Salah
Now, say the money sits for a year. Does it just sit at that, that level? Does it accrue any,  interest? How does that work?


[00:44:35] Adam Hautly
Yeah, you get to choose.  and, and so there are very conservative options inside most donor-advised funds that maybe based on an interest rate, a competitive interest rate in. You know, whatever the, the, the fed market would be at the time. And then there's also investment options. If you're donating, you know, 2, 3, 5, 10 years in advance, you don't necessarily wanna pull that out of perhaps market participation or portfolio participation. And so there's plenty of investment options as well that still allow for you to partic participate in, in growth after it's already been donated. What about real estate? I. Real estate also donatable.  really you can, you know, and I go back to the, to the pigs and the cows, you, you can really donate almost anything. Of course, I have to say almost,  you know, you, you can really donate almost anything. And a lot of times that that,  financial institution who's running the donor-advised fund is going to be able to help you see the value of it.


[00:45:40]
 And I say that to say, let's say you have a a, a piece of art.  I had a client who,  they had,  an appreciation for nice wines. Mm-hmm. And they said, you know what? I, I, I don't need all this anymore. If they were to turn around and sell a piece of art or sell, you know, appreciated, you know, bottles of wine for instance,  there is a collectibles tax on that if you're reporting everything above the table and those kind of things can be taken care of by the donor-advised fund company. They assess it, you actually donate in the same way that you donate a share of stock.  you would actually donate physical assets, they take care of,  selling it for you, and then that ultimately gets to be your charitable contribution.


[00:46:25] Dr. Nate Salah
Love it. Love it. Yeah. And so, you know, one scenario, of course, this, these are all scenarios. You'll talk with your financial advisor and your accountant about details. However, you know, one scenario is you have,  appreciated rental property and you're like, oh my goodness. I, my capital gains are gonna kill me because I've got, you know, I've, I've, I've run through all my bases and, and,  and I don't wanna do a 10 31 exchange. I'm tired of exchanging. I just wanna. I just wanna do something else. Well, and I'm gonna give, anyway, I'm gonna give cash. Well, don't give it the cash as an option. Right now we're talking about, hey, donate the property you saved and I'm, I'm just using hypothetical numbers. Save 30% on, on depreciation, recapture, and your, your state tax. And could be more, it could be less.  and then you've got the,  the charitable contribution, which is a deduction. Maybe. Who knows if your tax bracket's 40% between federal and state, there's 40 cents on the dollar. Plus, guess what? Gonna give anyway, cash. Now you get to keep cash. And these are, this is just a hypothetical situation, but there's a lot of power in that.


[00:47:23] Adam Hautly
Yeah. Very much. Yeah.  and I think, you know, donor-advised funds in a situation like that is just scratching the surface. There are other ways and, and you know, I, I don't wanna get too complex for a 30,000 foot conversation, but are ways even that 


[00:47:37] Dr. Nate Salah
little, even that little example might have been, you know, way over the top.


[00:47:41] Adam Hautly
Sure, yeah. But there are ways that,  you can have a partial charitable deduction and future income. Mm-hmm. That also just says that, hey, when I pass anything remaining would go to a charity.  so there are a lot of options out there as well where if you do, let's say, need. Some of those assets or, or some of the funds from that. But you also would like to be charitable. Maybe it's at your passing. There are ways that you can combine those two things and you know. Leave a gift at your passing. Also have a charitable deduction on the front end and in the interim,  perhaps have some income for you or for your family. 


[00:48:20] Dr. Nate Salah
Fantastic man. And there's so many others. Well, we'll just have to, we'll have to have another episode. We've got charitable remainder trusts and all kinds of different ways that we can,  we can really,  have a strategy like you said. Yeah. That are pretty cool in this space of. Living generously. I love that phrase. I love that phrase. So if you're listening, you are like, oh my goodness, they're just getting started. Well, we've been at it for almost an hour. So this is,  this is, this is the beauty of this, of course.  we'll make sure you can find Adam and his team on our,   in our show notes in case you know you've got further questions even in this space or others. And we'll definitely have you back on the show because. What a great, what a great conversation. You know, it doesn't have to be this sort of sterile, like, oh, you know, we're gonna talk about financial, you know, gr you know, money and all this. Oh, I'm gonna just fast forward to the next episode. It's  and you know, even at, you talk about church a lot of times, church. People have said, all they do is talk about money. All they do is talk about you gotta give more money to the church, more money to the church, more money to the church. Right. 


[00:49:27] Adam Hautly
One,  one, one thing that I, I I love,  you know, just rewinding a few years and,  when everybody signed up for their Robin Hood or, you know, E-Trade account and things like that, um., like back in Covid for instance, and I think a lot of people, you know, saw this opportunity. I joked that we had a lot of stockbrokers made, you know, over the course of a month or two when it was, you know, very easy to, to pick some very successful,  equities or, or stocks. I. I see a lot with clients who, you know, have I always jokingly call it the Fun money account. Then they've got the fun money account sitting off to the side. You know, maybe it has a few thousand in it and there's some gains in there. There was never really a purpose for it. It was just kind of fun to do,  at the time and stuff. Those, you know, fun money accounts,  for instance with some of those gains can be an awesome opportunity to be tax strategic with charitable giving. And in the same way you talked about with the rental property,  you know, the cash stays in your pocket. We get to take the long-term capital gains off the table,  and still be, you know, charitable all while you don't really have to do anything.


[00:50:37] 
You know, for, for most financial services companies, it's calling another company and finding out what form do they require. To be able to donate some of those securities. Yeah, man, it's a really simple process, even though it sounds complex, it it, it is a really simple and, and fun process too, because now something that in the case of the Fun Money account, you know, I don't mean to say it's purposeless, it served its purpose at the time and stuff like that, but it just kinda sits off to the side now. There's a really meaningful purpose,  that you get to bless others with. 


[00:51:11] Dr. Nate Salah
Come on, love it. Thanks for being on the show. Thanks for having me. Yeah, thanks for,  having that cheese family too. I've really enjoyed hotly cheese over the years. Another plug for the family. 


[00:51:22] Adam Hautly
You know, the one thing that I I do miss,  from when I was there is,  you know, instead of having a vegetable drawer, we had a cheese drawer in our refrigerator and  now it's back to vegetables. 


[00:51:34] Dr. Nate Salah
Yeah, man. Yeah, I don't know. I mean, you know, I think I would propose it if, if, you know, if you ever wanted a complimentary product, you know, it could be, you know, hotly suppositories. I don't know what they call right next to the cheese aisle. Maybe not, maybe not. We don't want that. Anyway, thanks again, brother. It's thank you, thank you, thank you. And what a great way to end. Well, my friend, I am so thrilled that you join me on this episode of A Call to Leadership, and before you go to the next episode, especially if you're binge listing, take a moment. I would love to get your honest review right here on your screen. Your feedback is so important. It helps the podcast, it encourages me and it helps me. It helps me to give you more and more and more value. So I can't wait to read your review. I can't wait. Wait to be with you on the next episode. I'm Dr. Nate Salah. This is A Call to Leadership.

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