Three steps to engage your clients in October

by Chip DeBuse, Vice President, Development–Legacy Planning 

There’s a lot to celebrate in October!  

National Estate Planning Week 
For many attorneys, financial advisors and CPAs, estate planning is part of your client conversations every single month, week and day of the year. You never hesitate to remind clients to update their wills, trusts and financial plans as circumstances change in their lives. 

Even though you remind your clients regularly about the importance of having an updated estate plan, still, estate planning winds up at the bottom of many to-do lists. That’s why it is very helpful when clients are motivated by reminders from other sources that validate what you tell them on a regular basis. Such is the case with National Estate Planning Week, which falls between October 20 and 26 this year. This is a great time to check in with clients not only related to the estate plan provisions for distributions to their heirs, but also the provisions in their estate plans to leave a gift to one or more charities. 

The Lincoln Community Foundation is here to help! Here are three suggested steps for making the most of National Estate Planning Week with your clients. 

Use the OBBBA as an ice breaker 
First, remind clients that the One Big Beautiful Bill Act has changed the landscape for charitable deductions, especially for your clients who have been in a gray area in recent years as to whether or not they itemize their deductions. For high income earners, 2025 presents opportunities to “front load” charitable deductions through a donor advised fund at LCF before the floor and cap kick in next year. 

Bridge the conversation to estate gifts 
Second, while you are on the subject of charitable giving, remind your clients that now is a perfect time to check in on their plans to include gifts to charity in their wills, trusts or beneficiary designations. Clients will appreciate refamiliarizing themselves with the provisions they’ve already included. If a client has not yet arranged for a legacy gift to charity, and the client makes regular charitable gifts each year, evaluate whether it also makes sense to include an estate gift. Many clients who are very philanthropic during their lifetimes simply have not stopped to consider this idea and will welcome the discussion. 

Call the Lincoln Community Foundation 
Third, lean on the team at the Foundation to help your client create a “portfolio” of charitable giving strategies aligned with both the client’s charitable intentions as well as the client’s estate planning and financial goals. As a client’s “home” for charitable giving, our Philanthropy Services team can customize and coordinate a series of vehicles to achieve a client’s charitable goals, including a donor advised fund to organize giving and help navigate the opportunities triggered by the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, a designated fund to receive Qualified Charitable Distributions for clients who are over 70 ½, annual support for LCF’s initiatives, and documenting your client’s intentions for an estate gift through the community foundation 

We look forward to working with you and your clients in October…and in every single month of the year. Thank you for your partnership.