Time to Lighten Up
With markets, both private and public, at all time highs, a lot of people are coming to me for ideas to mitigate the income tax hit of selling an appreciated asset. There are a number of charitable structures that a client may want to consider (i) charitable remainder trusts, (ii) donor advised funds, (iii) charitable lead trusts and (iv) pooled income funds.
Pooled Income Fund-What is it?
This post will introduce an old idea that is finding a new life, the pooled income fund (“PIF”). The concept of a PIF is quite simple. The client gives an appreciated asset to a PIF, the PIF sells the assets and invests the proceeds, and the client receives the income generated by the fund for life. PIFs have been around a long time, but, for various reasons, had gone out of favor. Recently, given the low interest rate environment, PIFs have made a comeback. Here is why.
Why is it Popular Again?
Given the low interest rate environment coupled with the rule that a PIF that is less than three years old can use the average of the last three years AFRs to calculate the charitable deduction means the charitable deduction for a PIF is substantially greater than a charitable remainder trust. This is because the deduction is for the value of the assets remaining at the end of the term, and using a low interest rate to determine that value means that the discount for time is smaller. When you couple this with the fact that most state laws allow the PIF to define income to include not only interest, dividends, rents and royalties, but also short and some long term capital gains, you have a very powerful income tax planning strategy. We are finding charities very interested in working with us to create these donor friendly PIFs.
Bottom Line
A PIF can (i) produce an income tax deduction of 60-80% of the value of the substantially appreciated asset depending on the client’s age, (ii) avoid taxation of the sale of the substantially appreciated asset, and (iii) pay the client a lifetime income interest enhanced by a definition of income that includes some capital gain. If the client takes a bit of the tax savings and purchases an insurance policy to cover the amount passing to charity and mitigate the risk of a premature death, he or she has all the bases covered.
