Where Assets Meet Impact: A Conversation With Erin Nally and Jan Taylor

Arsenal Financial advisors Doug Orifice and Jeremy Vaille are trying really, really hard to make a listenable podcast about money and finance. In this episode, they sit down with two guests who live at the intersection of assets and impact every day: Jan Taylor, a Watertown community builder and fundraiser launching Raise Lively, and Erin Nally, an estate planning attorney at Starboard Legal in Norwell, Massachusetts who helps families plan for life’s “what ifs” with clarity and heart. Together we talk about:

• Why the “why” behind the documents matter
• How giving is not reserved for the ultra-wealthy
• Tools that make charitable giving simpler and more tax-efficient
• The real pressure nonprofits face and why supporting arts, culture, and other areas can be just as human as meeting basic needs 
• Non-monetary ways to help, starting with raising awareness so the right people can find the right services
• They wrap it up with a highlight of their favorite local nonprofits and of course a couple dad jokes from Jeremy

Find Doug, Jeremy, and Arsenal Financial at arsenalfinancial.com or call (781) 335-9100.

Links for highlighted nonprofits:

South Shore Seahawks Youth Hockey Organization

Watertown Food Pantry

Mosesian Center for the Arts

Watertown Business Coalition Nonprofits

Watertown Community Foundation

Old South Union Church

New England Donor Services

Friends of Wompatuck

Watertown Cable Access

Watertown Boys and Girls Club

Wayside Youth and Family Support Network

CoLAB

Related Arsenal Money Clip Podcast episodes:

Retiring is Hard: How to Think About the Financial, Psychological, and Social Sides of Retirement

The Psychology Behind a Fulfilling Retirement: A Conversation With Dr. Carol Perlman

Securities and advisory services offered through LPL Financial, a registered investment advisor. Member FINRA/SIPC. The information in this podcast is educational and general in nature and does not take into consideration the listener’s personal circumstances. Therefore, it is not intended to be a substitute for specific, individualized financial, legal, or tax advice. To determine which strategies or investments may be suitable for you, consult the appropriate qualified professional prior to making a final decision.

Transcript

Welcome And Meet The Guests

Doug 0:04

Well, hey, good morning, and welcome once again to another exciting, fun-filled, oh my god, so many guests episode of the Arsenal Money Clip Podcast, where we're trying really, really hard to give you a listenable podcast about finance, investments, money management, all the stuff. Coming to you live from Watertown, Massachusetts, and my buddy in the South Shore hanging out in Norwell, Jeremy Vale. Jeremy, good morning. What's up?

Jeremy 0:29

Good morning. Good morning. I'm glad it's Friday. I'm a little bit less than average, but I think we're gonna rally. Have a good day.

Doug 0:35

When you say a little bit less than average, is that B minus or C minus? C plus, probably. You know, I like to have something to shoot for here. My goal is by the time we're done hanging out digitally here, you're at least an A minus. B B plus, B plus. At least an A minus. All right. All right, we'll see. You know why? We have two absolutely incredible and positive guests who I think I said beforehand, if we could take these two people, put them in a cake mixing bowl, and maybe electrify them a little bit, I think they could actually be a sustainable source of energy for most of the East Coast. It's probably true. Is that fair? I think so. Awesome. Awesome. Well, hey, our topic today is called, quote, where assets meet impact. JB, you and I have been talking a lot about how we can do a better job with helping our clients figure out what is the purpose of their money when they've done all the right things for 20, 30, or 40 years. So we're gonna talk a lot about that today. And we are super excited to have a treasure from Watertown, a treasure from Norwell. We have Jan Taylor, we have Erin Nally. We would love for you guys to introduce yourselves, tell us a little bit about who you are, what you do, and I don't know, maybe why you're excited to get into this topic today. I'm gonna flip a coin and I'm gonna look at Jan Taylor to be the first to introduce yourself. So go, Jan.

Jan 1:56

All right. Well, hello, everyone. Absolute pleasure to be here. Thank you, Doug and Jeremy, for the invitation. I'm Jan Taylor, often known as Jan Lively. I have been a fitness studio owner in the Watertown community for the past almost 12 years. And my career has been bookended by work in fundraising. I worked in university. I am now doing work for an art center. And I'm in the process of starting my next venture, Raise Lively, an homage to Get Lively, as I move into the fundraising realm and helping small organizations raise more, no matter what their resources are. You might have two people on staff. Every situation is capable of scaling and capable of earning more and making a case for support. So I am out there trying to help our small nonprofits do the incredible work that they do. Particularly here in Watertown, we've got an incredible community of nonprofit organizations who are helping to lift people up. And one of the things that I love most about what we're doing in Watertown is connecting our local business community with our nonprofit organizations to, as we like to say, make the magic happen. It was a cornerstone of what I did at Get Lively, and I'm really happy to move into this next realm with that.

Doug 3:11

Love it. Love it. It took all of my restraint to not give you a standing ovation when it was like next venture. Yes. So excited. Thank you. Erin Nally, thanks for being here. Tell us a little bit about yourself.

Erin 3:22

Thanks for having me. My name is Aaron Nally. I'm an estate planning attorney out of Norwell on the South Shore of Massachusetts. I have been in this practice now for almost seven years. Previously, I was an attorney for the state. Most of my prior service was with the public sector and sort of took all of my inner workings there and brought it to the private sector. And I helped mostly young families and small businesses plan for life's what ifs intentionally with an open heart and sometimes a sense of humor.

Jeremy 3:57

Definitely. Always a sense of humor. I mean, we're talking about a state plan and we have to so good about her. Her approach is amazing when it comes to having those hard conversations. So, you know, I really appreciate it.

Doug 4:12

All right. Let's kick

When Saving Stops Being The Problem

Doug 4:14

it off. So why are we here? We're talking about where assets meet impact. This has been, I'm not kidding, probably a daily conversation between Jeremy and I. And for some reason, we have a client, we end up talking about this. We're thinking about our next 10 years in this practice. We're thinking about this. But I guess just to set the stage, I think about how quickly 20 years has flashed by. And when I think about my role as a financial advisor 20 years ago, I'm helping mostly middle class people. And I'm helping mostly people who are in their, we'll call it 40s, 50s, and then some retired folks who just worked hard, saved money. Had a few clients with a lot of resources, but more often than not, it was just normal people working hard, good financial habits, saving and investing and following the program. Twenty years has gone by, and I have even less hair now than I had then, which is, I guess, not surprising. I've gotten older and as I've gotten older, so my clients, right? Shouldn't be surprising, but it does catch me by surprise, where I have so many clients who have done such a great job saving, investing, doing all the right things. And all of a sudden, there's a large chunk of our clients who aren't going to run out of money. I feel like I've owned up to the fact that we have not done a good enough job trying to help them find purpose in their money. We've done a good job helping our clients bucket money. And JV, you were talking about this before we jumped on today. Setting up those buckets of never gonna touch it money, right? This bucket that maybe uh, you know, a 67-year-old client has where, yeah, I don't know. Maybe this bucket of money is not for them, and we'll figure out its purpose along the way. But along the way, you know, Jeremy's gotten very involved in the community. I've gotten very involved in the community, and we've found these things that we can go and impact.

Jeremy 6:00

As you're talking about the clients that we help, a lot of the working class people that you talked about in your earlier in your career, it makes me think of even our parents, right? They never actually get out of the accumulation phase. They never really think they have enough. It's always about, am I really going to make it? We can almost never get to that next level. And I think that maybe is a bit of a mindset shift. Part of our job is to help them get to that place. And like you said, you've done 20 years worth of work with a lot of these clients and you've actually achieved those levels. It's just about having them actually believe it and know how to go to that next chapter.

Doug 6:36

So, Janet Aaron, before we flip it over to you, that I guess we can reference a couple of podcasts that we've done. There's two specific podcasts that we've done where we've talked about what's really difficult about retirement planning and focusing on not the financial part of it, right? The fact that Derby hit the nail on the head. We have a lot of families and clients that we work with that have, I call it great wiring. They work hard, they're accumulators. And all of a sudden, it's expected that they should have this easy transition into retirement stopping, loss of sense of purpose, this accumulation behavior stopping, and then all of a sudden you should be comfortable paying yourself and then figuring out something new. And that's really, really hard. We had a great guest, Carol Perlman, on at one point last year, who's a retirement psychologist, and that was a great episode. So we've talked a lot about why retiring is hard, but I think we haven't really focused on this piece enough, which is okay, you might be retired, you might not be retired. You might be thinking about what your next step is, you might be in that next chapter. And that might involve, on Aaron's side, proper estate planning and gifting, and then the why behind your money. And Jan, that's why we wanted you here today, too. Is to me, you define impact in our community, right? And especially with this new venture you're going to have with a lot of nonprofits in our community that need funding to continue to impact doing what they're doing. Really excited for this conversation today. Jeremy, why don't you set the stage here from a financial planning point of view, the hierarchy of needs for clients? How we get from that like accumulation mindset to their first appointment with Aaron and then having this cool discussion with Jan Taylor about how to give.

The Financial Pyramid And The Then What

Jeremy 8:39

And then as you move up the pyramid, personal safety, love, belonging, self-esteem, and then self-actualization is the top of the pyramid. So there's also kind of a financial pyramid that we think about too. So when you think about the bottom of the pyramid, think about basic living expenses, essentials, right? How am I going to pay for food? How am I going to pay for housing? How am I going to pay for transportation? And then as you move up, you get five levels. The second level would be like having an emergency fund, having proper insurance. You are starting to get beyond essential needs and starting to now have some ability, flexibility to cover certain things. And it seems like we really operate in these middle three tiers between emergency fund, accumulating wealth, financial freedom, and then the top of that pyramid. I don't love the word legacy, but that's really about the things that are after financial freedom, right? Financial freedom is essentially I don't need to work anymore. I've got enough that I can live the life I want to live. I can take vacations, I can do the things I want to do. But then that next stop, the top of the pyramid, is all about, okay, then what? So I was thinking of that in relation to what you can do at that point. And I think a lot of it is giving, and it's pertinent to all the people here on a screen is giving time, giving money, giving care or expertise, depend upon what that is, and giving money. And it's just a matter of like, I don't need to work to do those things and earn. I'm actually giving those in a proactive way. So I think, like I said, I think those middle tiers are really where we do a lot of our work. And then we're always trying to get them to move up the pyramid, clients, right? And then it's that point where you hit the top of the pyramid. What do we do next?

Doug 10:28

So I think as we move up that pyramid, that's where somebody often has a conversation with an estate planner, has a conversation with Aaron. So, Aaron, can we get your point of view when it comes to when either somebody first comes in or maybe when they come in, I don't know, a second time and review an estate plan because, like Jeremy outlined, they've moved up that pyramid. Just love your point of view and just what all this makes you think about.

Estate Planning Starts With The Why

Erin 10:53

Yeah, so I actually love the word legacy, primarily because it's not something that, like when we hear the word legacy, it sounds really big, but it doesn't necessarily have to be big. Or legacy could be millions of dollars being passed down to whomever, or it could be a recipe for cranberry sauce, right? That's used every Thanksgiving. So everything, the whole span is what can fit into a legacy. And when we're thinking of making plans, like legal life planning, a lot of it comes down to the why. Why are we doing it? What is the intent, right? Because without having a particular goal in mind, whether it be avoiding probate, minimizing taxes, making donations, providing for family, leaving a legacy, whatever it happens to be, that's what's gonna like drive the document. Because if we don't have the why, then what's the point? So back to Jeremy's hierarchy of needs, right? Like, why do we need basic living essentials? Well, because we're humans and we need water, food, right, and everything else. The next tier, right? Do you want to go on vacations? Is that your why? Like, what are we working for? And so that's the intent around all of it on both sides. Because if you don't have the point, then what are you making? Do you know what I mean? Like you don't know what it is to create that's gonna fit you the best because there's no intention.

Doug 12:25

When do those conversations graduate into the gifting conversation?

Erin 12:31

I think it could go in a number of ways. Sometimes people will come in right off the bat because that's their why, that's their priority. But then there are other times where it will shift into strategies for like maybe their primary focus is minimizing taxes. And then it's like, okay, well, what are some strategies we can do to accomplish that? And one of the amazing strategies is by gifting, because that sort of reduces the top dollar that a tax is pulled from.

Doug 13:04

So, all right, let's say we've moved on to that too. Jane, I'd love to get your perspective and in any way you want to donate it, right? Because you've worn several different hats over the last 20 years or so. Just go for it. You know, what's this making you

Philanthropy Is Not All Or Nothing

Doug 13:17

think about?

Jan 13:17

So I'm taking so many notes because I love hearing what you guys are saying. And so the first thing that comes to mind is, Erin, I love what you're saying because one of the conversations that I have with donors is it's not one or the other. It's not, I'm providing for my family and my will, or I'm giving to my local art organization. It's both. And how do we want our legacy to live on? I think about it all the time. I mean, there's something about that turning 50 that you realize what do I want this all to be beyond this? And what are the places that matter to me? So, first and foremost, just the education of it's not this or that. It's what do I want to carry on after I'm gone? And what are the places that matter to me? So that's the first thing. The second thing that is just like firing me up like an animal is hearing you guys talk about this middle tier, this middle life. So often people think about the work that I do is chasing rich people around. Okay, sure, there is a component of that. But what excites me so much is the things that you guys are talking about. This middle tier, middle life, middle income. We need to educate us on the power that we have to change the future of our society. So let's think about this. So for those of us who identify as Gen X, we see those memes and those reels, and you're just nodding your head like, yep, it's 10 o'clock, do you know where your kids are? All of those things. Think about if our generation became the generation that shifted the way people thought about philanthropy and giving back to their communities. What if every one of us who was buying a pile of junk on Amazon or buying our Starbucks every day, spending all this money, said, wait a second, what if I just put a small contribution each month to a local organization? We know, you guys are the financial guys, what the compounding effect of that is. So how do we educate people on both the estate planning piece that it's not all or nothing, and that if you're putting $5,000 in your will to an organization for when you are no longer with us, there's impact in that. It's all cumulative. And as we think about people like us who might say, Well, I'm not wealthy. What is my hundred dollars or my thousand dollars going to do? We have to help them understand what it could do and what it does. And how if we all just like scrape a little off the edge, what that could do. 15 years ago, 20 years ago, we didn't have Amazon. We didn't have apps where you could just buy your coffee and upgrade this and upgrade that and spend, spend, spend, spend, spend. What if we just peeled back on some of those habits and flipped that over to pick two organizations locally that matter to you and start channeling the money into those places? It is a profound impact that we could have if we think about ourselves as a cohort and we think about the cumulative impact that we could all have.

Jeremy 16:25

Jan, I love what you're saying there. And then Aaron and I talk a lot about your estate being something that is now. It's not just at the end, right? Your estate is part of you today, it's part of you in the future, and you know, it's part of the end game. But also to your point, a lot of us are already philanthropic in the middle tiers. We're either coaching sports or we're volunteering on the board or we're donating along the way. And anybody can do that, right? Anybody can give time, anybody can give expertise. So I love that point. And you're right, I think we do all have a responsibility to make sure that we acknowledge that and how important that is, and make sure that we continue to propagate that in the community.

Jan 17:07

So, Doug, many of us were recently at the funeral of a wonderful man locally who defined community service. For people locally know John Erasion Sr., being at his services hit my heart in such a way because it reminded me the power that someone who believes in giving back to their community and harnessing those around them, a rising tide lifts all boats, right? I mean, that's just how this works. And I was so struck by that. And it has really inspired within me this desire to how do we educate each person on how they can take that next step? Like you're saying, Jeremy, it doesn't have to be a big grand gesture. It's not zero or a million. It's there's a millions of shades of gray in between where we can have a really significant impact on our community.

Doug 18:02

I've thought about the flaws in this post-it note, A to B, B to C description of what we do, that fully employed and not fully employed to don't run out of money before you die, right? And as you guys are all talking, I'm seeing the post-it note in my head of that A to B, fully employed to not fully employed, is where a lot of that love for community or Jeremy, what you're talking about, how you give, whether it's how you give time, you know, it could be anything from coaching a sports team to a kid has six friends over and you're the house that like everybody hangs out at to helping at church or whatever it is. That A to B is usually what defines what you love and what you want to give to and what you're a part of. Jam, when you're talking about Mr. Rage, same sort of thing. He had a super, super long A to B, right?

Jan 18:57

Yeah.

Doug 18:58

And it was all about giving back, and it was about finding the people that he loved and the community that he loved. And there's just so many people that do that too. And this is great because I feel like this is a quasi-coaching session where it's like, you're right, impact doesn't come only when you start talking to Erin in her office to make some estate planning documents. It's from that A to B. It's not at the end. Yeah, even before you get that first job. I think one thing Jeremy and I like about this is we'll interject a lot of personal stuff into this too, right? My son this summer is gonna be working at a local camp. He just turned 14. And when you're 14 in our city, you can't be paid. So we had to have this conversation about him joining a counselor and training program, but he's gonna get community service for it. He's like, not get paid. He's like, why am I gonna work and not get paid? I'm like, a few things, right? Number one, you can knock down your community service hours, but more importantly, right, you can learn. You can learn what it's like to trade your time to be involved, trade your time to learn how to be a leader, trade your time to give back to a community and be a part of the machine and how it works. So, anyways, I guess that's just a way of saying thank you to you guys because it as we have this conversation, I'm like, oh yeah, you know, this impact part starts hopefully way early.

Jeremy 20:12

This starts at school. And we're not working just to like buy food and put $108 worth of gas in our uh in our car, right? And like to your point, Douglas, Andrew has a show today. He's doing a wax museum and he's Nathan Hale. So Nathan Hale was like a revolutionary guy, right? Yes. But I'm thinking about that's 300 years ago. None of those people are alive anymore. All the people that lived during that time, right, were forgotten about 200 years ago. We get so stuck in the like here and now and the doing the day-to-day. Why not spend that time and make a real impact in things that are important to us?

Matt 20:51

I just want to throw a fun interjection in there.

Jeremy 20:53

Yeah.

Matt 20:53

I don't know if you know, Jeremy, that that Maslow actually went back many years later and updated his pyramid. And self-actualization is not the top anymore. It's the top now. Before he died, it's self-transcendence. Oh. So going beyond yourself. Very even better. Yeah, right. So anyway, just wanted to throw that in there.

Doug 21:12

Now we gotta do the whole podcast over. Reset. Half-assed internet research. It happens every time, right? Jane, I want to shift back

Nonprofits Under Pressure And Why Arts Matter

Doug 21:23

to you and talk about the state of nonprofits, the state of the arts. It's kind of rapidly changing over the last couple of years. And I want to maybe dig into your why and why you're so passionate about this. Could you maybe just take a few minutes to talk about nonprofits and where they're at and some of their struggles and what you're trying to help a lot of these organizations solve for?

Jan 21:47

Yeah, absolutely. Thank you for asking that. So everyone knows nonprofits are a need. We have experienced a lot of cuts in federal funding. I know the organization I was at most recently that trickled. Down to our state funding being cut. So there's even more pressure on already pressed organizations. From a societal standpoint, well, I'm speaking to the choir here. People are scared. They're holding on to their money. They're not sure. They don't know what's going to happen tomorrow. So there's even more pressure than I have seen in my career 25 years ago when I was working at the university level. So what I feel is so important. And I remember when I was working in education, I used to get that question. Doug, I said it to you the other day. And I certainly get it now working in arts and culture is people will say to me, How can you be raising money for an arts organization when people don't have clothing or shelter? And I, again, there's no black or white in this world. It's not one or the other. It's both. Of course, health and human services, their basic needs. It's back to the base of the pyramid, as Jeremy said. But as I said to you the other day, like what's the body without a soul? When you think about, so our basic needs are met. What is life? What is it without color? What is it without conversation? What is it about art and expression and creativity that helps us connect on a human level? So again, I think about how we help people cut through the noise of their own folklore. If we think about, well, I can't afford that. Well, I can't afford that. I mean, the number of times people tell me, well, I can't make a gift as they hop in their Range Rover and tell me they're hut to task in for the weekend. And look, no judgment on how people decide to spend their money. But if we all look deep and we all think about, so what is my role in society in this experiment known as the human race? We all have to feel and understand that we have a responsibility to contribute to that. Again, it's helping, Erin. I'm sure you have this conversation all the time. Helping people understand what you can do? What do you want to do? And helping people feel really good about that because it's so easy to hide behind, well, I can't give the $100,000. That's okay. What can you do? And what matters to you in the world that you live in? I know we're focused on arts because that's my world, but we go to the Mossessian and have all these great events and get to go to Matt's podcasts, and we get to enjoy all of these incredible creative and cultural experiences. Well, that organization depends on all of us to keep it going and fill in the blank for other things that matter to you.

Erin 24:40

What I love you saying was the component of connection. Like that's the intent of all of it, right? Is we are looking to connect with other people in other ways in our community. How do we make that connection? Maybe it's with the arts, maybe it's with health and human services, maybe it's, you know what I mean? And then we connect the others. You know, it's kind of like a spider web of connections, really.

Estate Strategies For Giving And Taxes

Doug 25:06

So maybe let's spend a couple minutes since this is a finance podcast, right? On some of the financial tools, strategies that we can use to help. I have a few in mind, but Aaron, I'd like to go right back to you to talk about somebody's in your office and you talked about the why, and I'm glad you positioned it that way. And their why is hey, I'm ready to give some money and figure out where my money goes. Talk to us about some strategies that you'll walk through with clients. And you can go anywhere with this, but just love to hear from you kind of a day in the life of when that's the topic.

Erin 25:38

Yeah, so sometimes, sometimes folks will come in with the specific intent of these are the organizations that I want to provide for, these are the dollarance that I want to give to them or percentages or whatever it is. But sometimes where I more often than not end up having the conversation is through the remote contingent beneficiaries. So where folks will come in and if nine times out of 10, right, they want to split evenly among their children. But then there's a component of like, okay, well, what if all of you guys were eaten by a shark? All five of you are gone, right? Parents, children, there's no grandkids, something happened. One way of distributing is through airs at law. So whoever just lands on the family tree. But if you don't know that family tree, or if there's no connection to the people that are on those branches, that's where sometimes folks will say, All right, if we're all gone, give it to these charities, or whether they be multiple charities or one charity. You know what I mean? Like there's a way of sort of making those divisions. And then also, too, if I come back to when they first come in, there's also questions about giving during life as opposed to afterlife. And there's sort of the different components, which obviously you guys can speak to better than I can. But I would say that's the different strategies of saying, like, where can we fold gifting into where it makes the most sense? Because sometimes people will come in without any intention of donating, but they're like, we'll be damned if the government's gonna get another dime of theirs, right? And so then it's like, okay, so you mean to tell me I can give this charity this much and then I don't have to pay taxes? Done. So maybe it wasn't their intent in the beginning, but if their primary focus is making sure that like a tax isn't being paid, then all of a sudden their philanthropic endeavors just got boosted.

Doug 27:38

To date myself, as you were talking about that, I saw the Sylvester Stallone arm wrestling over the top moment with taxes, right? Good one. Bang.

Jeremy 27:48

You like that reference, JB? I love that. It's like a switch. You just you turn the hand around, boom, twitch is flipped. Again, Jan, you sent us a Jedix podcast, so Jedix reference.

Doug 27:59

Everyone will get that. Everyone will get that.

Donor-Advised Funds For Flexible Giving

Doug 28:01

So big topic in our practice the last couple of months, donor advise funds. So again, to go back to Jeremy's financial hierarchy of needs, when we can get clients to a certain point where we've kind of convinced them, because that's part of our job, is convincing them that it's okay. Hey, you've worked your butt off for 40 years. You retired. You were kind of stingy in those first six to 12 months because it was a behavior change for you in a new life chapter, but you realize, hey, it's okay. And Doug and Jeremy keep telling me that I'm not going to run out of money. And if that's the case, good. Maybe we can take some of this, set it aside. And it's for kids and grandkids. It's not for you, money. It's actually money that we can reset the egg timer, have a 20-year time frame, and maybe look for some growth and invest differently, right? I think taking clients to that whole activity, and then to bring in the tax piece, Era Nally, that's had the conversation of donor advised funds coming into the mix a little bit more recently, where you already have this money that's set aside as quote, not yours. What if we took a little bit of that, especially if it is an appreciated security and you don't want to sell it because there's capital gains there? You put it into a donor advised fund bucket. All of a sudden, you don't have to worry about capital gains. All of a sudden, you get some nice tax help, maybe all in the year in which you're doing, maybe over the next few years, depending on your case. Donor advised fund, really interesting, neat tool that you can use to, hey, Jan, donate to multiple causes over multiple years. But what precedes that is a whole lot of financial planning, is a whole lot of good behaviors, is a whole lot of, hey, you've made it and bucketing some money for the future.

Jeremy 29:48

Beyond that tax benefit, the donor advice fund's great because you can make that gift and then make grants subsequently. So you don't need to know which charity or which cause you'd like to support until after the gift is made. So the tax deduction is booked, and then you have a pool of money that's dedicated set aside. We talk a lot about having different buckets of money for different purposes like education funding, et cetera. You have a donor-advised fund now that is specific for gifting to different causes that are important to you.

Jan 30:19

And it's changing the game. I mean, this is going to change the game. So when I left the development world in the early 2010s, this was not a thing. And I come back in a few years ago, and it is changing the game because you guys have done the work to help people understand the impact of their money. It's altruistic, it's a benefit to them, but the money's already been designated. So it's not a matter of me as a fundraiser having to go out and convince them that they can do this. It's a matter of making the case just for the organization because you guys have done, you've teed us up. I mean, it's changing the game. It's going to be very exciting to see how this plays out as this becomes more and more prevalent.

Jeremy 31:04

When you get to somebody and they're like, Yeah, I already got a pot of money for that stuff. I'd love to get. They don't have to come out of pocket with X amount. They've already done the planning to book that money.

Jan 31:14

And what's incredible about that is to the point that you all just made, is in some cases, like Erin said, some people come in not necessarily with a philanthropic bend to them. And so now there's this tool that is tax benefit to them. It's incredible when structure can help benefit society, because we don't necessarily always see that. But this is just such a great example of how that's doing just that. So bravo to all of you making that happen.

Jeremy 31:45

One

QCDs And The Retirement Income Waterfall

Jeremy 31:46

of the other tools, and I don't know if you've heard about it, but a qualified charitable deduction. Thank you for bringing that up. Of a QCD. So this is like back in the day, right? When 401ks got invented, it was all pre-tax money and people accumulated a ton of money in these accounts. But what's the problem? You've just deferred taxes because at the end of the day, you're going to have to start taking that money out. The government says exactly how much you need to take out. What if you don't need that money to live on? Well, guess what? You can do a qualified charitable deduction from an IRA over $100,000 a year at this point. And that number keeps going up. And that directly goes to a charity and satisfies your required minimum distribution. And you also get the tax benefits of it.

Doug 32:25

This circles right back to top of the show, which is 20 years has gone by, and then all of a sudden we have more and more clients that maybe we warn them about the possibility that maybe just maybe everything might go right. They retire, they transition into something else. And there's a little term that Jeremy and I use, which is it's very possible in your 70s you have a waterfall of income. If you potentially work long enough, save enough, delay Social Security, one or two Social Security payments until age 70. You have required distributions at age 73 or 75, depending on how old you are. All of a sudden, there's a bunch of income that's coming in, quote, whether you like it or not, end quote. Right. And at that point, all of a sudden, if it all goes right, a client in their 70s may have a tax problem. So enter the QCD, Jeremy, like you're talking about, enter the donor advise fund, enter Aaron, like you're talking about the tax issue which comes up. So it's good to have these tools to help wrap in and then a recognize, hey, this body of work, it all went right, but we do have a new problem that we have to tackle, and that can be tied to something that you love. Yeah. One other note I just want to throw in there about the donor advise fund, too, is from like a behavioral finance point of view, I love that for our clients, where being charitable or being philanthropic is maybe new and scary to them because it's another behavior change. Yeah. Right. Jeremy, to your point, they won't have to make the decision right away. They can tuck the money away, book the tax benefit now, and then come up with their giving plan later. Yep.

Jeremy 34:04

Yep. And it's a lot easier when it's already set aside. Right. You know, it's not like we were just talking about. Like you don't have to like come up with the money out of your checkbook. It's there, it's been planned for in advance. And of course, you could always give cold hard cash. You don't get the same tax benefits, but you can always do that. And uh, the other thing I think about is you've probably heard the Cars for Kids commercials, you know, like donating property, right? You donate a piece of art to a museum, right? There's other ways beyond just dollars and cents.

Giving Beyond Money And Raising Awareness

Doug 34:33

Well, let's hit one more topic, and then I think we can wrap it up with some final thoughts. And then, Jan and Aaron, we get to shift into our favorite part of the podcast, which is Jeremy's dad jokes. Jan, maybe a non-monetary thought from you on the other ways that you can impact nonprofits, non-financial needs. I just want a quick spotlight on, you know, you're in this nonprofit world. Clearly, funding is an issue. In the spirit of you're young, you are a teenager looking for community service hours, you're now fully employed, right? You're not one of those retired people who has a chunk of money who's trying to figure out what to do. What are the needs of the nonprofits that anybody can help solve for?

Jan 35:18

So the simplest thing in the world is raising awareness. And that's twofold. It's being aware of what matters to you. And I always say, look within your own community first. What are the needs within your community? And what are the organizations supporting that? And what do you care about as it relates to that? So building your own awareness and then making others aware. So at the baseline, talking about these organizations, sharing them with people that need them. I was talking to the executive director at one of our local nonprofits recently. She oversees Wayside. And we were talking about how helping the community understand the service that Wayside provides, because they help individuals and families impacted by substance abuse, we're all impacted by that. The more people that know about that organization, the more people who can get the services they need, but then also the people that are going to be inclined to support an organization like that. It's now on their radar. So it's deciding what matters to you, becoming aware of what's going on in your orbit, and then helping raise awareness to that. So I say it's a step before even the day you walk in and say, hey, I'm here to do my volunteer shift. I'm going to stuff name tags or pack boxes or do mailers, things like that. That's all great. But getting the work that's happening in our communities out and having people understand the impact and supporting that, I say that's first and foremost.

Doug 36:49

Awesome. Great. So I'm gonna throw this out there. Let's just wrap it around for some final thoughts. And

Favorite Local Nonprofits And Shout Outs

Doug 36:56

then for all five of us, Matt, Hannah included, and Matt, thanks as always for supporting us and allowing us to do this. I'd love for everybody to just take a second to give a shout out to a nonprofit, an organization, an agency in their community that means something to them. Erin, if you don't mind, love to get some just closing thoughts from you. And then why don't you kick off the shout-out here?

Erin 37:17

All right. So some of my thoughts, I guess, throughout the conversation was sort of the progression. We talked about like being young and how you can contribute as a young person, right? That's where our time comes in. And there's that bell that's like, okay, as a young person, we might not be able to give a lot of dollars, but we can give a lot of time and expertise. And then as we reach that B, then we're like, okay, now we've done all the right things. Now we have the money to support the back end work of having these other people provide their time. So it's progressive, right? Like with everything, there's a starting point, things change. It's a living, breathing conversation or attitude around philanthropy and giving back to the community. The shout out I would like to give is for the South Shore Seahawks Youth Hockey Organization. We provide youth hockey for Norwell, Situate, Hull, and Cohasset. And it's basically our town's program. And there's so much that goes into it. It's not just, you know, finding ice and finding kids. It's everything in between. And then also having that community provide impact around all of our surrounding towns.

Doug 38:36

So awesome. Jane, closing thoughts and a shout out.

Jan 38:40

So I encourage everyone to think about what they can do. And I encourage them to think about that we do not need huge contributions. We do not need huge amounts of time. Everyone can make an impact by building awareness, by finding small ways to help, and by making small donations. So no amount is too small. Because I have to always fuck the trend. I have to say two organizations. So the Watertown Food Pantry is near and dear to my heart. And here's why. Because the leadership of that organization treats the people that come in there with such dignity and with such self-respect and with such care that I am just forever struck by how beautifully that organization operates. So Watertown Food Pantry, near and dear to my heart. And then of course the Ms. Center for the Arts, providing such a range of cultural experiences and opportunities. And I just absolutely love being able to show up there. Even if I don't know anyone, I always end up having a great conversation, walking away, knowing someone new, and feeling like I've been part of something that really matters to me. So those are my two.

Doug 39:46

At Hanno. Let's make a cameo in the Arsenal Money Clip podcast.

Matt 39:49

Oh boy, special day. So I want to give a shout out to. So we're both on, we're involved with the Watertown Business Coalition, and they recently have put up a page dedicated to nonprofits. So if you're in Watertown, you can go on that page and see all the nonprofits that are part of that organization and doing great stuff in town. Since it's the month of May, we'll see when I get this out. But if I do get out in time, the Watertown Community Foundation is a great organization. They do things with so many of the other nonprofits. They're kind of an organizer of lots of things. But in May, every year, they do something called Watertown Helps Out. People from corporations to just residents can volunteer with lots of different opportunities all throughout the month. So if you're in Watertown, check that out too. WatertownFoundation.org. Watertown helps out. You can volunteer in lots of different ways. So excellent.

Jeremy 40:35

JV, thank you, ladies, so much. You got the hearts of saints, and you're great at what you do. We love you. Thank you. My personal donations probably are to the Old South Union Church in Weymouth. And it's just amazing what an impact they have in the community and the outreach there. Also, New England donor services. For those that don't know, my father had a heart transplant about six years ago. And it was just an incredible experience to go through and to see what that organization does is really impactful. And then finally, because I'm really bucking the trend here, Jan. Sorry. Nice. Friends of Wampatuck. It is a reservation in the Hingham Noel, Cohasset area, situated, I think, as well. A massive reservation that is taken care of and is a place, a Mecca for all mountain bikers, hikers, people in nature taking care of the environment that way.

Doug 41:27

Man, I'm so glad that Jan and Matt, you stole a little bit of my thunder, which actually crossed off a few of the options on the list. Matt, thanks so much for bringing up the Watertown Business Coalition, which again, Jan, Matt, myself all get very involved with. We do have a page which is Watertown Business Coalition.com slash non. It has all of the Watertown Business Coalition's member nonprofits. I'd like to give a couple special shout outs to a couple of those organizations on that list. One that's super helpful in our town and needs our help is actually the Watertown Cable Access Corporation, which is a nonprofit that broadcasts government affairs, city council meetings, sports, also helps broadcast different events in town. They do a wonderful job. Great staff over there. The Watertown Boys and Girls Club just does amazing things for our community, takes care of our community's kids. Sofia Suarez and the Wayside Multi-Service Center. We'll see all of these on the Watertown Business Coalition's nonprofit page. One last little shout out from there too. Man, I love this. This is like 15 shout-outs between the five of us. Really cool nonprofit in town that just is on the top of my mind right now called Collab, which is a high school STEM career collaboration between our local life science companies here in Watertown, of which there is 107 life science companies in our Watertown public schools, specifically Watertown High School, really showing a great example of what can happen when you take the cross-section of business and life science in your business community and your public schools and marry them together and find a way that you can take professionals and you can take well-educated people and you can take successful businesses and teach kids about what's possible, what's out there, what they could do for a living, and give them an eye-in to what's possible when they grow up. So to everybody out there that gives and does the hard work every single day, thank you all so much and thanks for tuning in. But before we go, JV,

Dad Jokes And How To Reach Us

Doug 43:20

you ready?

Jeremy 43:21

Hold on. Daddy! Don't try to be cool. Don't try to be cool, bro, with your dad jokes. Usually I try to get dad jokes that are relevant to the topic. I got two. How much do pirates donate on average?

Doug 43:39

R is not a number.

Jeremy 43:43

Matt, I feel like we've been getting better at these. You guys have been getting really good at them, actually.

Matt 43:48

Nothing's coming to me on this one.

Jeremy 43:50

A buccaneer. A buccaneer. A buccaneer. Wow. Alright. Last but least. Not at least. Why don't crabs donate to charity? Because they pay charties?

Matt 44:08

They have claws against like a clause against it.

Jeremy 44:12

You guys, you are getting good at this. But no. Because they're shellfish.

Erin 44:24

Oh man.

Doug 44:26

With that note. Dan Taylor, Aaron Nelly, thank you guys so much for hanging out with us. We had a ton of takeaways from this, and this was actually like a sneaky coaching session for Jeremy and myself. We'll have a lot to talk about after this. If anybody has questions for Jan, for Aaron, for Jeremy, for myself, hit us up at info at arsenalfinancial.com. We'll be happy to get your questions to the right person. You can always give us a buzz at the office, 781-335-9100. Check us out on arsenalfinancial.com. Thank you to everybody for your help. And as always, Matt, Hannah, thanks for making this possible. Thanks for allowing us to do this once a month. Matt also has a great podcast if you're in the Watertown community called Little Local Conversations. If you haven't checked that out, please check that out. And all the endeavors that Matt gets involved in. And we will catch you next time on the Arsenal Money Club Podcast.

Required Disclosures

Matt 45:24

Securities and advisory services offered through LPL Financial, a registered investment advisor, member of FINRA SIPC. The information in this podcast is educational and general in nature and does not take into consideration the listener's personal circumstances. Therefore, it is not intended to be a substitute for specific individualized financial, legal, or tax advice. To determine which strategies or investments may be suitable for you, consult the appropriate qualified professional prior to making a final decision.