Latest / PGgrowth - Planned Giving podcast / NO 101: SPECIAL EPISODE All About Mark Halpern

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NO 101: SPECIAL EPISODE All About Mark Halpern · PGgrowth - Planned Giving podcast

0:00
SPEAKER_03: The P G Growth Podcast.
0:22
SPEAKER_03: Hey everybody, Ed Sluga here for the PG Growth Plant Giving Podcast.
0:27
SPEAKER_03: Have a really interesting interview today with Mark Halpern.
0:31
SPEAKER_03: Mark is somebody that lots of people know.
0:33
SPEAKER_03: He's known across the country.
0:35
SPEAKER_03: He's done wonderful work in using insurance products primarily to build philanthropic desires by uh individuals.
0:46
SPEAKER_03: Uh he's got a really long career in doing this.
0:49
SPEAKER_03: I love Mark's approach to this, where he is definitely putting the idea of philanthropy first before sell of products.
1:01
SPEAKER_03: And that's a really interesting reality where he's understood that you can, and he'll tell you about it.
1:09
SPEAKER_03: If you do well, you'll do uh well.
1:12
SPEAKER_03: If you do good, you do well, I think is how he put it.
1:14
SPEAKER_03: Mark's um career is really interesting, gets into it.
1:18
SPEAKER_03: Um, Mark is also uh on the faculty of the uh Master of Financial Advisors and Philanthropy.
1:25
SPEAKER_03: He also quietly um uh in the background uh and now can talk about it, was part of the building of a new product from Canada Life.
1:36
SPEAKER_03: Uh, those of you in Canada who know Plan Giving and know uh insurance products know about the launch of this program from Canada Life a few years ago, I'd say about three years ago now.
1:48
SPEAKER_03: Interesting reimagining of uh insurance as uh as a way of making a philanthropic contribution.
1:58
SPEAKER_03: Of course, lots of other benefits, tax benefit to the estate, using it as a planning tool.
2:04
SPEAKER_03: So uh have a listen to this uh wonderful interview with Mark.
2:08
SPEAKER_03: Really had a great time chatting with him, and uh, he's really one of the good professionals in that area.
2:13
SPEAKER_03: So uh enjoy.
2:21
SPEAKER_03: Well, Mark, I'm really excited to have you with us here on the PG Growth Plan Giving Podcast.
2:26
SPEAKER_03: Um, you know, you and I have been talking at length uh for many months now, and I'm excited about this conversation, uh, mostly because as a fundraiser, somebody who's done plan giving for a long, long time.
2:39
SPEAKER_03: Uh, you know, some of the work that you've been doing is really instrumental in bringing philanthropists to this kind of giving.
2:47
SPEAKER_03: But it's also this not niche, but it's very interesting, complicated, comp, you know, complex way of doing this.
2:56
SPEAKER_03: Um, or that's at least what I've been thinking, or a lot of my colleagues think, you know, this is a a strange world that only experts like Mark understand.
3:04
SPEAKER_03: And of course, um, you know, you you're well known in our community.
3:09
SPEAKER_03: Uh, your name uh is something that resonates definitely in the Greater Toronto area, but across the country, you've made a name for yourself in this area.
3:18
SPEAKER_03: So I'm interested in this conversation.
3:20
SPEAKER_03: But before we get into some of the work that you've been doing around philanthropy, maybe you can just talk us through, you know, the life of the career of Mike Mark Halpern, you know, where how you got going, you know, the work that you've done that brought you to the moment of, you know, hey, I see this philanthropic challenge, this thing I want to do.
3:40
SPEAKER_03: And so maybe just take us through that career of yours.
3:44
SPEAKER_01: Thank you, Ed.
3:44
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I'd be happy to.
3:46
SPEAKER_01: It's uh it'll be a little nostalgic.
3:48
SPEAKER_01: And it kind of, and I look at it as a gauntlet, you know, it's uh a series of pivots and ratchets and pivots and ratchets and learning along the way.
3:57
SPEAKER_01: So um I was born in Ottawa, um, and I was the youngest of four boys.
4:02
SPEAKER_01: My father was my late father was actually uh in the Department of Defense, actually, as a structural engineer.
4:08
SPEAKER_01: And uh very happy home.
4:10
SPEAKER_01: Unfortunately, my father passed away when I was 11.
4:13
SPEAKER_01: He was uh 50 years of age, had a sudden heart attack.
4:17
SPEAKER_01: That was back in the days when, you know, if you smoke two packs of cigarettes a day, so did all the doctors.
4:21
SPEAKER_01: So it was you know sort of legitimate.
4:24
SPEAKER_01: But what happened was it was a bit of a defining moment because uh my father was a great dad, but he was also a busy engineer.
4:31
SPEAKER_01: He had no will, there was very little savings, and there was no life insurance.
4:37
SPEAKER_01: So it was really hard for us.
4:38
SPEAKER_01: My mother, who was 48 at the time, had to go back to work to support our family.
4:42
SPEAKER_01: So we we had to really develop a struggle muscle along the way.
4:45
SPEAKER_01: I'd say that that was a defining moment to just sort of file, you know, that you know, I saw how difficult it was for our family, and I think it gave me a sensitivity sort of going forward.
4:56
SPEAKER_01: But uh, I went to university, York University, did you know political science communications, had an interest in in marketing and and and public relations, spent some time overseas uh studying in Jerusalem, and and basically came back and decided I was going to be in the marketing field working for some agencies.
5:17
SPEAKER_01: I actually worked for a guy named Miles Nadell.
5:20
SPEAKER_01: Do you know the name Miles Nadell?
5:21
SPEAKER_03: I know it well.
5:22
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I know him well, the name anyway.
5:24
SPEAKER_03: Don't know him, but I know the name.
5:26
SPEAKER_01: We're still close.
5:26
SPEAKER_01: He was a big uh, he was a he was like, you looked up the entrepreneur in the dictionary, and there was his scrapping picture.
5:34
SPEAKER_01: And and he started as you know, smoke and mirrors and promised things on time, on target, on budget.
5:41
SPEAKER_01: And then he would throw me in to do things that was never on time, never on target, never on budget.
5:45
SPEAKER_01: But it was a great experience.
5:47
SPEAKER_01: And I thought it was a great industry to be in.
5:50
SPEAKER_01: I got recruited to another agency, Ed, and unfortunately, we lost two of our largest clients in six months, and I lost my job.
5:59
SPEAKER_02: Yes.
5:59
SPEAKER_01: And that was a, and I'm sure everybody can relate, probably yourself as well, Ed, when you're told that your your time is up, you take it a little personally.
6:09
SPEAKER_01: And I I think that was also a defining moment to say, you know, I don't want to work for anybody ever again, where I'm told, you know, here's the door.
6:17
SPEAKER_01: So I I had an interest, I think, in the uh in the financial world.
6:22
SPEAKER_01: I had three brothers who are accountants, but I I I had got people I knew who were in the life insurance business where I I had no interest of ever being in the insurance business.
6:32
SPEAKER_01: I kind of thought of it as uh, you know, the sales guy at WKRP.
6:37
SPEAKER_01: Herb Tarlic.
6:38
SPEAKER_01: Herb Tarlic, you know, polyester.
6:41
SPEAKER_01: That's not for me, but but I saw that it was a lifestyle that looked very appealing and you you controlled your own destiny and including your your income.
6:51
SPEAKER_01: And I thought I would give it a go because I sort of again looked into the future and said, you know, uh my friends were eventually going to get married, have businesses, inherit money, be community-minded.
7:02
SPEAKER_01: And I didn't see anybody sort of doing that.
7:04
SPEAKER_01: And I thought maybe I could be that person.
7:06
SPEAKER_01: So I started in in 1991 with North American Life, and I did everything for everybody for 10 years, kind of, you know, as we said, going through the gauntlet.
7:17
SPEAKER_01: And, you know, I believe in Malcolm Gladwell's book, Outlier.
7:21
SPEAKER_01: You know, it takes 10, it takes 10,000 hours to become an expert or a go-to person on something.
7:28
SPEAKER_01: And I started doing that, and I did everything the money business, investments, insurance, group benefits.
7:35
SPEAKER_01: But there was also a big defining moment back in the late 19 in like around 2000, early 2000, there was an insurance product that was on the shelf for every advisor called critical illness insurance.
7:49
SPEAKER_01: Yes, yes, right?
7:50
SPEAKER_01: And and and people knew what very few people knew what it was, and probably less than 25% of all advisors had ever sold in a critical illness policy.
7:59
SPEAKER_01: And I thought it was brilliant.
8:00
SPEAKER_01: Get sick, get up to$2 million, stay healthy, get all your money back.
8:04
SPEAKER_01: Yes, you know, yeah, and and if you die of another cause, you get back all your premiums too.
8:09
SPEAKER_01: So I said, I think this product could sell on the radio.
8:16
SPEAKER_01: Now, now, of course, who am I?
8:18
SPEAKER_01: I don't have a brand, I don't have a name.
8:21
SPEAKER_01: So in March of 2005, we launched illnessprotection.com.
8:25
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and uh we had some celebrity endorsers.
8:28
SPEAKER_01: Our first one was uh Gord Stelek on the Fan.
8:32
SPEAKER_01: We had some other celebrity client endorsers, and we started advertising.
8:37
SPEAKER_01: And instead of making calls like most insurance people do, I was taking calls.
8:42
SPEAKER_01: We were getting between 30 to 70 people calling us every day.
8:46
SPEAKER_01: Imagine people calling.
8:47
SPEAKER_01: And before we started this conversation, we talked about how nobody likes to be rejected.
8:52
SPEAKER_01: Nobody, it doesn't matter if you're fundraising or you're in sales.
8:57
SPEAKER_01: So it was nice to have people contacting us, and we saw that this is something, there's something here.
9:04
SPEAKER_01: If we tell people what something does as opposed to what it is, it gets people's attention, especially if you can tell them stories that they can relate to, they can put themselves in the cockpit there.
9:18
SPEAKER_01: And we did that for a number of years.
9:19
SPEAKER_01: We launched it in other cities across the country.
9:22
SPEAKER_01: We ended up launching our own uh US healthcare product.
9:25
SPEAKER_01: We got it into about 16 MGAs across the country.
9:29
SPEAKER_01: But you know what?
9:30
SPEAKER_01: We found out that wealthy people uh really don't need the critical illness insurance.
9:37
SPEAKER_01: They want access, they want, you know, care, they want and they're also very, very sensitive about tax.
9:45
SPEAKER_01: It's not so much they need insurance, but it's a want to reduce their taxes or preserve their estates.
9:52
SPEAKER_01: And what happened was we went from there, we we rebranded as wealthinsurance.com, and that was just a great name.
10:00
SPEAKER_01: We felt like it's not life insurance, it's insuring your wealth.
10:03
SPEAKER_01: And we focused on estate planning and tax planning, but the real kunz was philanthropy.
10:11
SPEAKER_01: Yes, and and that sort of opened up a big window because again, it comes back to you know my upbringing and my family.
10:20
SPEAKER_01: I'm I'm Jewish, I'm Orthodox, we have a very big obligation to give what's known as tadaka.
10:28
SPEAKER_01: Tadaka is a Hebrew word that's often mistranslated as charity and actually means justice or righteousness.
10:35
SPEAKER_01: If you have money and you're doing well, you have an obligation to give back to maintain the social fabric.
10:41
SPEAKER_01: And there's two ways to give tadaka.
10:43
SPEAKER_01: One is either I write a check myself, which is a small check, or or I can teach other people, advisors and charities and philanthropists, how to write checks in a cost and tax-efficient way.
10:58
SPEAKER_01: As a result, I can create way more that that way, and hopefully get a lot of merit for doing that as well.
11:06
SPEAKER_01: So we really, you know, uh we we work with uh our clientele is largely successful business owners and entrepreneurs and affluent families and generous families.
11:18
SPEAKER_01: And we do three things now for them.
11:20
SPEAKER_01: One is estate planning, so just making sure that their financial architecture and their financial furniture actually lines up with reality.
11:28
SPEAKER_01: And so many people don't have will.
11:30
SPEAKER_01: They haven't incorporated, they don't have the state, they don't have powers of attorney.
11:35
SPEAKER_01: There's no you know, list of where are their things, and they haven't incorporated legacy in any of that.
11:41
SPEAKER_01: Yes.
11:42
SPEAKER_01: Number two area that we're involved with is tax mitigation strategies.
11:45
SPEAKER_01: So we specialize in insurance to help people preserve their estates or succession planning or shareholders' agreements or estate taxes.
11:54
SPEAKER_01: And then the third area that we're involved with is this whole area of legacy and philanthropy.
11:59
SPEAKER_01: We like to help people incorporate strategic philanthropy into their estate planning to often convert tax into charity and and be remembered for giving a lot to charity as opposed to writing a check to Ottawa.
12:14
SPEAKER_01: And it's shocking how few advisors and charities are really leaning into that conversation.
12:21
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, that's really interesting.
12:22
SPEAKER_03: And thank you.
12:23
SPEAKER_03: That was a brilliant sort of summarization of where you where you started and where you are now.
12:28
SPEAKER_03: I wanted to kind of lean into just a question before we turn into sort of the work that you're doing now.
12:35
SPEAKER_03: And look, I've been at this now 30 years, and I've seen lots of life insurance folks come in.
12:42
SPEAKER_03: It's almost like a wave.
12:43
SPEAKER_03: I'll tell you this, Mark, that it's almost like every four to five years, life insurance agents were involved in plan giving, trying to, and I'll I'll I'll put big quotation marks around this, but you know, kind of working off of what you said.
12:58
SPEAKER_03: They're trying to sell you a product.
13:00
SPEAKER_03: They weren't really trying to um build your profile of financial uh benefit, tax mitigation.
13:11
SPEAKER_03: They were trying to build a sell a product uh because they the they themselves benefited from the product sale.
13:19
SPEAKER_03: And so you saw this wave come in, come out.
13:22
SPEAKER_03: Um your approach, and I think this comes from your faith, it takes a different um different tack to this.
13:30
SPEAKER_03: It's the same, ultimately, it's the same thing, but it does come from a different place.
13:35
SPEAKER_03: Am I right in saying that?
13:37
SPEAKER_03: And I don't want to throw any of your colleagues under the bus here.
13:40
SPEAKER_03: Uh I just think it's a story that you're telling, which is a bit more compelling than hey, here's insurance, and you can use that too, rather than just writing a will and putting a legacy gift in.
13:52
SPEAKER_03: That's what we see on our side of the equation.
13:54
SPEAKER_03: Maybe we can talk about that where the story comes from a little bit more.
13:58
SPEAKER_03: You touched on it a bit, but I'm really fascinated by that.
14:02
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, thank you.
14:02
SPEAKER_01: I I think uh you're right.
14:04
SPEAKER_01: There are, I would suggest that most of the advisors are good advisors.
14:08
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
14:09
SPEAKER_01: I'm just saying they're, you know, they're not out to rip somebody off.
14:13
SPEAKER_01: And, you know, they're good guys and they're bad guys.
14:15
SPEAKER_01: Those bad guys are not going to last very long, and the good guys are hopefully going to develop long careers and great long-term relationships.
14:23
SPEAKER_01: But there are bad players.
14:25
SPEAKER_01: Like, how many Ed, uh, everyone knows of somebody who had some you know hospital visit in Florida, and the insurance company didn't pay the, you know, for the for the bill.
14:38
SPEAKER_01: So, of course, now all insurance companies are robbers, all insurance advisors are cheaters, and you know, and those any of those stories happen.
14:49
SPEAKER_01: But uh getting back to the idea of faith, yeah, look at I I believe in God.
14:54
SPEAKER_01: I believe that there's there's an Almighty.
14:56
SPEAKER_01: I mean, you look at the world, you see the complexity.
14:58
SPEAKER_01: It's it couldn't have just come up by itself, poof, and you know, sort of evolved over billions of years.
15:04
SPEAKER_01: So, you know, I really believe that, you know, if I help people, and especially if I help them in this area of of something what I call sort of like a the MRI for their soul, like what's really, what's really important to them, finding out what matters, then I'm gonna get paid, whether it's really creating an insurance solution as part of their planning, or if it's just creating charity.
15:32
SPEAKER_01: I won, you know, and that person eventually hopefully will give me the time to look at other parts of their planning because they see that, you know, I wasn't selling them something, that I had good ideas, that there were strategies that perhaps they were not being talked to about.
15:49
SPEAKER_01: And but it is a longer runway.
15:51
SPEAKER_01: I just want to say that it's not something, this is not instant coffee stuff.
15:55
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
15:56
SPEAKER_01: It's stuff that that really can take anywhere between, I'm gonna just say six months to 10 years or more, until, you know, depending on the complexity of somebody's estate and where they are, because I think a lot of the times also, Ed, you know, people will say that, you know, uh I that that their family is very important, which it is.
16:18
SPEAKER_01: And charity does begin at home, let's face it, take care of your family, especially in these this day and age where you can't afford to buy a place in Brooksville or Toronto, fair enough, you know, or Vancouver.
16:30
SPEAKER_01: So we you know, we do have to help our kids longer, but giving uh to charity is not about disinheriting your family, it's about adopting causes and charities that you care about, and it's disinheriting Ottawa.
16:45
SPEAKER_01: Yes, agree, it's a different paradigm again.
16:49
SPEAKER_01: And and the beautiful part is the government has introduced 25 different pieces of legislation since 1995 to encourage Canadians to be doing this.
16:58
SPEAKER_01: Like they know they can't maintain the social fabric of society.
17:02
SPEAKER_01: So I think it's just imperative that people get this education and this financial literacy in this area to be able to make good decisions.
17:09
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, no, and this is what I've appreciated of watching you uh from afar and then a little closer, and then sort of uh working alongside of you is part of your message, and I'll I'll leave this to you to kind of give uh a broader and more in-depth uh approach to this, has been I want to teach you about philanthropy.
17:30
SPEAKER_03: Uh, when you speak, you want to talk about all of the ways people can give.
17:34
SPEAKER_03: Maybe life insurance isn't part of that.
17:37
SPEAKER_03: Maybe that's not right for you.
17:38
SPEAKER_03: It's about the message of philanthropy.
17:41
SPEAKER_03: And, you know, there's that old adage about rising tides lift all boats.
17:46
SPEAKER_03: Um, that's that's part of part of this.
17:49
SPEAKER_03: But you you've kind of broadened your messaging from this.
17:54
SPEAKER_03: And and maybe you can talk a little bit about the that messaging and also talk about your challenge.
18:00
SPEAKER_03: And I think it's fascinating, the math of it, uh, but it's compelling at the same time.
18:06
SPEAKER_03: And I'll let you speak about it because you're so good at it, and uh, and it's your idea, which I think is fantastic.
18:12
SPEAKER_03: So what just give us a sense of all of that?
18:14
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so uh look at there there are two types of people that we meeted, you know, and there are two types of people.
18:22
SPEAKER_01: Some people they just give automatically because they had that education.
18:30
SPEAKER_01: It could have been in their church, their synagogue, their mosque, their schools, whatever the case might be.
18:35
SPEAKER_01: And then there are those people who don't.
18:37
SPEAKER_01: It's just not part of their education, or they don't haven't been told how to do it.
18:43
SPEAKER_01: When those people realize that they have a choice where their taxes can go, that they could give those to charity as opposed to to Ottawa, suddenly they become accidental philanthropists.
18:55
SPEAKER_01: They don't they did not know.
18:57
SPEAKER_01: And and the first group now can actually give more for the same cost or give the same amount for less cost.
19:04
SPEAKER_01: So there's we have to be able to educate people and and and and it's not so complicated.
19:11
SPEAKER_01: You know, still today, I would suggest that 95% of advisors are not talking about philanthropy, or if they are, they're not taking it to the follow-through.
19:25
SPEAKER_01: It might be something on the boxes to check when talking to speak to people, but the best you're gonna get as a lawyer is would you like to leave a gift in your will to charity?
19:35
SPEAKER_01: Not, you know, a planning module, or can we find out like how much, how much tax, like you know, Ed, if if I were to go up to you right now and say, Ed, how much tax are you going to have in your estate after the second to die of you and your wife?
19:51
SPEAKER_01: Most people would not know what the answer is.
19:54
SPEAKER_01: Not know.
19:54
SPEAKER_02: Right.
19:55
SPEAKER_01: So so so most people haven't.
19:57
SPEAKER_01: Or or if you have a single or widowed or divorced person who doesn't have the benefit of having a spouse to roll everything over to on a spousal tax-free basis, you know, we meet people that are sitting there with a$2 million RSP or RIF that's only worth$920,000.
20:14
SPEAKER_01: They don't know that.
20:15
SPEAKER_01: If they pulled it out now or on the second to die or on the first to die, if they're single, the government's getting more than half.
20:23
SPEAKER_01: So if they understand what the what's going on there, now the sun is shining in order to do some of those plans and move some of the shells around to sort of create this.
20:35
SPEAKER_01: Now, at the same time, Ed, the charities, you know, they're also really very occupied in creating money to keep the lights on, right?
20:46
SPEAKER_01: So it's to meet your budgets.
20:48
SPEAKER_01: But this area of planned legacy giving really does not get the attention it deserves.
20:53
SPEAKER_01: Ed, you're fantastic, and that's why we love working with PG Growth and introducing you to the charities that we're involved with.
21:00
SPEAKER_01: But their focus is on current and maybe a capital campaign every two to five years to catch up or for a special project.
21:10
SPEAKER_01: So, but they're not talking about bequests or donating appreciated securities.
21:16
SPEAKER_01: Maybe they're doing that, but are they really like leaning into it?
21:20
SPEAKER_01: Flow-through shares, like using existing insurance policies, new insurance policies.
21:27
SPEAKER_01: We have over 30 different strategies that are better than using cash checks and credit cards.
21:34
SPEAKER_01: So somehow we have to get that communicated to people in a way that you know we're all suffering from ADD.
21:40
SPEAKER_01: So the messaging has to be short, sweet sound bites.
21:43
SPEAKER_01: And we love to do that vis a vis videos and things like that, which we we love to share.
21:48
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, and so just and and and let's pick up on a little bit of this.
21:51
SPEAKER_03: And and I think it's the those strategies, but I think what you've talked about, and I'm gonna be very honest about it, is there are lots of Of you know, advisors of various kinds, not just in the insurance industry, but in various other kinds that focus on the tax.
22:09
SPEAKER_03: And the charity part of it is kind of secondary.
22:13
SPEAKER_03: Like the charity is the thing that's going to get you the tax receipt.
22:17
SPEAKER_03: But what we want to focus on is the tax and mitigating that tax, diminishing that, maybe offsetting it completely, right?
22:25
SPEAKER_03: And with one strategy or another, the charity is inconsequential.
22:30
SPEAKER_03: And in fact, in speaking with some leading lights in our community on the legacy giving side, they they say it outright that they have clients where charity doesn't matter.
22:41
SPEAKER_03: It's the tax that matters.
22:44
SPEAKER_03: And so I think what you've done is you've brought this kind of knowledge of uh of these tax strategies, tax mitigation or or elimination strategies, but you've tied it to understanding how important charity is in the community.
23:02
SPEAKER_03: And those charities that are there out there, some of them are in the Jewish community, some of them are outside of the Jewish community.
23:09
SPEAKER_03: We need to give them these gifts.
23:12
SPEAKER_03: It's not just send it to some holding charity somewhere.
23:16
SPEAKER_03: Um, it's about supporting those organizations that are actually directly doing good in the community.
23:23
SPEAKER_03: And I think that's something else that's unique to the way that you're uh, and I wouldn't say you're the only person, but it's the you know, right now the minority of advisors are like, you know, bypass these products here, uh, you know, this product will help you and send it directly to a charity because those charities need us.
23:44
SPEAKER_03: They need this, the these contributions to do this good work.
23:48
SPEAKER_03: And so that's a really interesting thing for you.
23:51
SPEAKER_03: What's been the reception from some of those accidental philanthropists who really don't have a charity right now that's primarily their target for philanthropy, but they could make a true difference.
24:08
SPEAKER_03: What are they saying when they hear your conversation and your your uh presentation of these strategies?
24:16
SPEAKER_01: I'll give you a real case that is happening right now.
24:19
SPEAKER_01: It's actually uh uh a new client that we've been engaged with since 2019 when I did my my TED talk, my idea city talk called The New Philanthropy with Moses Snyder.
24:33
SPEAKER_01: They happened to be in the audience.
24:34
SPEAKER_01: And we we met.
24:36
SPEAKER_01: Um it's a person who is widowed, um, worth a lot of money, particularly in the equity markets.
24:46
SPEAKER_01: And um when we met, you know, uh, and she thought she was worth$10 million.
24:53
SPEAKER_01: I told her she was only worth six and a half million dollars, which of course I heard some words that were not really attractive for an 80-year-old woman to be saying, but you know, she didn't realize that that rift that she had of over three million dollars, we pay tax at 54%.
25:10
SPEAKER_01: She had stocks, you know, appreciated stocks where there's over a million dollars of capital gains.
25:15
SPEAKER_01: So that got her attention.
25:18
SPEAKER_01: And then moving things around, we were able to preserve the estate for the family, include charity, and reduce or mitigate those taxes.
25:28
SPEAKER_01: Now that took time this year, just you know, give her a lot of credit.
25:33
SPEAKER_01: I wanted to give her a sticker saying, you know, good girl, she went ahead and donated appreciated securities to a donor-advised fund.
25:43
SPEAKER_01: And and again, you know, our our donors don't realize that they're not worth as much as they think they are, you know, because there's this embedded capital gain on their non-registered portfolios that if they sell them or they die, 27% of those gains are going to the government.
26:01
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, but by donating them in kind, you pay no capital gains taxes and you get a nice charitable receipt for the full market value.
26:08
SPEAKER_01: And if you love the stock so much, just buy it again.
26:11
SPEAKER_01: It's at a higher cost base if you think it's gonna so she she finally did it this year.
26:17
SPEAKER_01: She uh and she said, Mark, I finally got it.
26:20
SPEAKER_01: So that's a very you know, intelligent person.
26:23
SPEAKER_01: That's six years, right?
26:25
SPEAKER_01: Yes.
26:26
SPEAKER_01: So that, but but what's nice is that individual is also now incorporating into their estate a strategy to convert those estate taxes where they're actually now likely going to have at least a$10 million charitable estate uh when they go.
26:44
SPEAKER_01: And now they at the same time, Ed, they want to give money away today.
26:49
SPEAKER_01: So we're right now entertaining uh proposals for$2 million gifts today, and and I'm helping her.
26:57
SPEAKER_01: Most of the time, people know who they want to give it to, they already have a passion for that.
27:03
SPEAKER_01: But in this particular case, I'm I'm sort of bringing those parties to the table or organizations that she feels are the, you know, she's interested in in poverty and medicine and and you know, and and and families.
27:19
SPEAKER_01: So, you know, that that's a great feeling for me to help steward that.
27:23
SPEAKER_01: Now, that's not not always the case.
27:26
SPEAKER_01: Most of the time people are just gonna do it themselves, but I feel very grateful that you know they have the confidence in me and that I can be that person to sort of shirpa that along.
27:36
SPEAKER_01: So, as I said, there's no cookie cutter, each situation's unique.
27:40
SPEAKER_01: But I I also wanted to say on this ed that I really feel there's a big onus on the charities, the advisors, the charities more than the advisors, just you know, why?
27:52
SPEAKER_01: Because they are dealing with very generous families who are partnering with that organization potentially for decades.
28:01
SPEAKER_01: And if they're not talking to that person about a legacy gift or a blended gift, you know, taking some of today's money and creating a future gift or putting something in, you know, let's say they have a private foundation.
28:18
SPEAKER_01: A lot of charities are receiving money from private foundations, you know, talking to that donor that, you know, your private foundation can actually own a life insurance policy, be the beneficiary of a life insurance policy, and pay for a life insurance policy inside their private foundation.
28:36
SPEAKER_01: Why don't we take some of that and create a nice legacy gift for this organization that you care so much about?
28:43
SPEAKER_01: The donor doesn't know this.
28:45
SPEAKER_01: And if the donor doesn't know it and the charity's not talking about it, the advisors don't, then you know, it just shows you we have this tremendous opportunity and I would also say responsibility.
28:56
SPEAKER_01: Like, you know, let's let's help our donors really feel that they're making a difference, not just now, but in the future as well.
29:03
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, and I love the work that you do with charities.
29:06
SPEAKER_03: And I'll I'll tell you a little story.
29:08
SPEAKER_03: A few years ago, I was doing a plenary session for the Canadian Association of Gift Planners.
29:14
SPEAKER_03: Um, and unfortunately, it was online, it was during COVID.
29:17
SPEAKER_03: So we did this presentation online.
29:20
SPEAKER_03: And uh what I said was that charitable fundraisers, charity fundraisers, needed to be at the table.
29:29
SPEAKER_03: And I kept on using the term at the table, which I think it goes right back to probably the early days of when you were selling life insurance kitchen table things, right?
29:38
SPEAKER_03: That's uh uh you know how a lot of that worked.
29:41
SPEAKER_03: Um and uh and one of the questions that was asked, and again, unfortunately, we're on a digital platform, so they they cut it off at the end, so I couldn't go into too much depth here.
29:53
SPEAKER_03: Was um somebody said, What do you mean we need to be at the table?
29:58
SPEAKER_03: Which I thought was a very revealing thing for a fundraiser to say, uh, and to have the term not really be known.
30:06
SPEAKER_03: And this is what the Canadian Association of Gift Planners, right?
30:09
SPEAKER_03: Uh, we need to be at the table.
30:11
SPEAKER_03: And what I love about it is you're trying to bring the charity to the table to have the conversation alongside of you and the donor, right?
30:21
SPEAKER_03: And and this is a wonderful opportunity for charities.
30:24
SPEAKER_03: They need to be well positioned, well informed, they need to know what they're talking about, they need to understand a lot of the the uh concepts that you're talking about.
30:32
SPEAKER_03: They don't need to be expert at the concepts.
30:34
SPEAKER_03: That's what you're there for.
30:36
SPEAKER_03: But what they need to do is be able to play um uh around that table alongside of you and alongside of the donor to build this philanthropic um gift that's going to do so many good things on so many fronts.
30:53
SPEAKER_03: And again, we all always have to remember the government put into place these rules.
30:59
SPEAKER_03: So the government wants us to play in this.
31:01
SPEAKER_03: We're not we're not taking any away from the government.
31:03
SPEAKER_03: They understand that this is part of the tax code.
31:07
SPEAKER_03: So and they're fully aware that that people will take advantage of it.
31:11
SPEAKER_03: So everybody needs to be at that table.
31:14
SPEAKER_03: And I think you know, talk a little bit about the sessions you have with charities, and I know you've had lots of them across the country, speaking to boards, speaking to groups of donors, speaking to charitable um uh uh professional associations, and some of that pledge, that challenge that you're again I've mentioned a couple of times.
31:34
SPEAKER_03: Maybe talk a little bit about that because I find that fascinating how you're bringing together all of these groups.
31:41
SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
31:42
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's it's great.
31:43
SPEAKER_01: Um I I think it really starts at the top with the charities.
31:48
SPEAKER_01: Obviously, there's senior people.
31:50
SPEAKER_01: You know, I'm dealing with uh an organization right now, it's their they're gonna have their 100th anniversary in 2034.
31:56
SPEAKER_01: I said, well, we're gonna create a hundred million dollar charitable legacy over the next eight, ten years.
32:04
SPEAKER_01: They love that.
32:04
SPEAKER_01: They're so it's about building in a goal.
32:07
SPEAKER_01: You have to have a goal, right?
32:08
SPEAKER_01: It could be based on an anniversary, how long you've been around for, it could be a number of gifts, but you need something that's time down and measurable.
32:16
SPEAKER_01: After that, there really has to be a discussion with their foundation board.
32:20
SPEAKER_01: Those are the people, unless it's just a you know governance and compliance board, those are people who should all be engaged in creating a gift, or they're the gatekeepers potentially.
32:31
SPEAKER_01: So we look for champions, we look for ambassadors just in the foundation board to potentially say, I like this.
32:39
SPEAKER_01: This is something I want to take on my shoulder and go with.
32:42
SPEAKER_01: Then we we often will create um uh sales training.
32:46
SPEAKER_01: So uh a legacy uh plan-giving training for the Cedar staff and the front-facing donors.
32:54
SPEAKER_01: And that could be a two-hour session, that could be a full-day session, that could be a multi-day session to find those accidental philanthropists and to go through.
33:04
SPEAKER_01: We don't want the people to become the tax experts.
33:08
SPEAKER_01: We want them to be able to identify situations and be able to speak in a way that people understand and feel the passion about wanting to do something very good.
33:18
SPEAKER_01: And then also, Ed, we've done many, many um uh home groups.
33:23
SPEAKER_01: So, you know, I just did a beautiful one with 40 major donors of a private school, and it was in somebody's beautiful home, and it happened to be on the fifth day of the Blue Jays and the World Series.
33:37
SPEAKER_01: So we had to we had to bump it up, as you can imagine.
33:39
SPEAKER_01: Yes, of course.
33:40
SPEAKER_01: But but we had it was an interview where their fundraiser interviewed me, and we talked just in general about what we're speaking about, and it was like there wasn't anybody looked at their phone or their their watch.
33:53
SPEAKER_01: They these are people who care about the organization.
33:56
SPEAKER_01: And from that, we said, you know, I said, you know, in this room, there's 40 million dollars of legacy giving.
34:05
SPEAKER_01: There's 40 million dollars.
34:06
SPEAKER_01: That's that's a future 40 million dollars, you know, at 5% in the future that generates, you know,$2 million a year January 1st before you start calling around, so that you can now be calling around for other programs and other projects.
34:21
SPEAKER_01: But what we did was we had people who stepped up and said, I want to do that, and I'm gonna call around to the other donors who are my pals.
34:32
SPEAKER_01: And and that could be a goal.
34:34
SPEAKER_01: Now, that that might not be a one-year program, that might be a two-year or five, but still, so so we'll do that.
34:40
SPEAKER_01: We also have done national webinars with many organizations to get donors, just again, it's called, you know, maximize giving and minimize tax or minimize cost, you know, planning your legacy.
34:54
SPEAKER_01: And again, it's just all about providing wisdom and knowledge and lots of case studies.
35:00
SPEAKER_01: So people hear what somebody else has done and then they plug themselves into.
35:05
SPEAKER_01: I did not know that.
35:06
SPEAKER_01: And I'll tell you one story that you edge of love.
35:09
SPEAKER_01: So we had a uh a donor who passed away this past uh February, and he was very near and dear to a charity, he was one of the biggest donors.
35:20
SPEAKER_01: So about uh 15 years ago, he had gone ahead and took his CPP, his Canada Pension Plan, which stops when you stop, right?
35:29
SPEAKER_01: When you die.
35:31
SPEAKER_01: And he he purchased a$1 million life insurance policy personally.
35:37
SPEAKER_01: This is unbeknownst to the charity, okay?
35:40
SPEAKER_01: When he died, that$1 million got paid to his donor advice fund that creates a million-dollar charitable receipt and it saves his estate$500,000 of tax just by using the CPP.
35:53
SPEAKER_01: But in the will, he instructed the donor advice fund that the money would be professionally managed and that 5% of that fund every year was going to go to that charity that was near and dear to him.
36:06
SPEAKER_01: Yes.
36:06
SPEAKER_01: That's$50,000 plus every year forever, not just for five years, forever.
36:13
SPEAKER_01: We went to the charity to tell them about this.
36:17
SPEAKER_01: They were very concerned about losing his gift.
36:19
SPEAKER_01: And the fundraiser, she started to cry.
36:21
SPEAKER_01: She could not believe that he had put that into his plans of using CPB that ends when he does.
36:29
SPEAKER_01: It just again, it was one of those beautiful moments where I went, that's called plan legacy giving.
36:37
SPEAKER_01: And that comes from a charity taking the lead to provide this wisdom and knowledge to donors to make it easy for them to do it.
36:46
SPEAKER_01: And and you mentioned before, Ed, we're we're not territorial.
36:50
SPEAKER_01: We we say at these events, you know, we'll give you the donors an hour of complimentary time.
36:58
SPEAKER_01: Bring your advisor, bring your other insurance advisor.
37:01
SPEAKER_01: Because you said something very key, Ed.
37:04
SPEAKER_01: As the tides rise, so do all the boats.
37:07
SPEAKER_01: So if we get that advisor there and he understands he can transact the whole thing, or we or or they work with us, in which case we sort of partner with the charity.
37:18
SPEAKER_01: But the point is that we need to be passing along this wisdom to people in a way that's easy for them and also simple.
37:28
SPEAKER_01: I think a lot of the times people are guilty of taking the the simple and making it complicated.
37:34
SPEAKER_01: Our goal is to take the complicated and make it simple.
37:37
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, no, that's really great.
37:39
SPEAKER_03: And and and I really do appreciate the approach.
37:41
SPEAKER_03: I'm gonna ask one final question, and me, this is kind of a vision question.
37:46
SPEAKER_03: And uh we often ask this.
37:48
SPEAKER_03: This is a little uh um, you know, little fundraising uh strategy.
37:52
SPEAKER_03: You probably do it as well in your advisory um uh practice, which is you know, imagine, imagine, you know, uh the future, you know, when Mark Halpern is finally decided, you know what, I'm gonna retire.
38:06
SPEAKER_03: I've been working at this for a while, never gonna retire.
38:09
SPEAKER_01: Never gonna retire.
38:10
SPEAKER_01: You too ed.
38:11
SPEAKER_01: How could you do that?
38:12
SPEAKER_01: Okay, go ahead.
38:13
SPEAKER_03: You know, 20 years' time, you look back.
38:15
SPEAKER_03: What what have you, you know, uh what would make you feel happy that you've accomplished, you know, with this uh this activity?
38:23
SPEAKER_01: So I'm gonna say two things, okay, and we'll just focus.
38:26
SPEAKER_01: So one of them is I have a mentoring coaching program now in its fifth year called powerofplatinum.com.
38:33
SPEAKER_01: We've had over 200 advisors, insurance, investment, and and and fundraising professionals go through a whole year of learning with me and being coached as well along the way, creating a community where we all share and stay inspired and can collaborate together.
38:50
SPEAKER_01: It's a lonely world out there.
38:51
SPEAKER_01: So we we now have our next group is starting actually a week today.
38:55
SPEAKER_01: It's on January 14th.
38:56
SPEAKER_01: But it it gives me tremendous pleasure to see these advisors incorporating strategic philanthropy and high net worth insurance and practice management into their business because people were very generous with me growing up in the business and shared, and people are looking for mentors that they don't have.
39:15
SPEAKER_01: So that's one thing.
39:16
SPEAKER_01: So I'm I'm hoping that that will be in existence for many years, and then we'll also have it in an AI or a recorded style so that people can just subscribe and register and learn and incorporate that stuff.
39:32
SPEAKER_01: So that's one thing that I'm very looking forward to down the road.
39:35
SPEAKER_01: But the other one is our pretty ambitious goal ed, and I know that this is what you're referring to.
39:40
SPEAKER_01: We're trying to create a national uh community of a hundred professional advisors and charities, where if each of us are creating$10 million a year of legacy, either legacy or current gifts, and you've got$10 million times a hundred, that's a billion dollars ed.
40:01
SPEAKER_01: And I would like to be known for creating a billion dollars a year for charity.
40:05
SPEAKER_01: And it's not pie in the sky, it's kind of like crowdfunding, it's it's available for everyone.
40:12
SPEAKER_01: So we're encouraging people to join us.
40:15
SPEAKER_01: There's no obligation, it's really more of a I do think this is important and we want to learn about it.
40:21
SPEAKER_01: But it it it it you know, it can be done by any charity and it can be done by any advisor.
40:27
SPEAKER_01: But that to me is something that would inspire me and gets me up every morning because I feel that you know our goal is to get it in place by 2030, the end of 2030.
40:38
SPEAKER_01: We've already got about two dozen people committed to it as well in charities.
40:42
SPEAKER_01: That's doable.
40:43
SPEAKER_01: And if our community can come together, just like they did with willpower, let's say, but now it's around legacy and teaching and going deep and and having you know uh segment professionals to lean on and collaborate with so you don't have to do it yourself.
40:59
SPEAKER_01: I think that would be a beautiful legacy to lead.
41:02
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
41:03
SPEAKER_03: And that's what the that math was, which makes it that I referenced earlier, makes it so simple.
41:08
SPEAKER_03: The way you say it, it's very doable, right?
41:11
SPEAKER_03: When you see that math, for me, that's really, really, really key.
41:14
SPEAKER_03: Well, I've really enjoyed this conversation.
41:17
SPEAKER_03: This has been really great.
41:18
SPEAKER_03: I think, I think you're so good at telling the story of what you're doing, and I really appreciate it every time we have a chance to talk.
41:24
SPEAKER_03: You know, at the end of these interviews, um, we we were doing them all last year, we'll be doing them all this year.
41:30
SPEAKER_03: We asked this one question, which is um, you know, if you could go back, Mark, and tell your younger self one piece of good advice that you've learned since you were in this, you know.
41:43
SPEAKER_03: Uh, and again, it's for younger people involved, you know, getting in, getting into the sector.
41:49
SPEAKER_03: What would that one piece?
41:50
SPEAKER_03: I know I'm putting you on the spot here, you're thinking, I'm gonna talk a little bit more so you can bring that one piece up.
41:56
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, maybe I have it, you know.
41:58
SPEAKER_03: I'm just maybe it's there, maybe it's there.
42:01
SPEAKER_03: But what would that one piece of advice be to the younger Mark Halpern that you could if you could go back and tell yourself?
42:08
SPEAKER_01: So, so for sure it would be number one, be patient.
42:13
SPEAKER_01: Ah, number one would be patient, you know.
42:17
SPEAKER_01: They say Rome wasn't built in a day.
42:20
SPEAKER_01: This is taking me 35 years to be an overnight success head.
42:25
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and and and I just feel that, you know, so be patient, number one.
42:30
SPEAKER_01: Number two is you know, you have to have the desire to want to do good, not just make money.
42:37
SPEAKER_01: If you do good, you can do well.
42:38
SPEAKER_01: I just want to say it's not you you're you're giving a solemn oath of poverty in order to do good things.
42:45
SPEAKER_01: If you want to do good and you want to give back and you want to try to change the world and try to fix things in the world, and you're really coming from a real, a genuine place, you'll do extremely well because the sky will open up and you're gonna meet the right mentors and you're gonna find yourself in the right place, and you're gonna have ideas come to you that you can hopefully just piggyback and help come to fruition along the way.
43:09
SPEAKER_01: And then the last thing I really feel is you know, a lot of us have given, you know, don't read anymore.
43:15
SPEAKER_01: We I personally love reading biographies of people who who really were self-made and struggled.
43:26
SPEAKER_01: And I love listening to podcasts like how I built this with Guy Raj and PR.
43:32
SPEAKER_01: Just it you need that motivation, that inspiration to know that you're not in this alone.
43:38
SPEAKER_01: There have been many people who have come before you and and learn from them so that you don't have to just learn from your scabbed knees along the way.
43:48
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, really wonderful advice.
43:50
SPEAKER_03: Thank you so much.
43:51
SPEAKER_03: Great conversation, really, really enjoyed this.
43:54
SPEAKER_03: Again, it's always a great chance for me to learn whenever I talk to you, and uh I Sure, those who listen today will also take a moment to learn and uh and thank you again, Mark Halpern, for joining us here on the PG Growth Podcast.
44:09
SPEAKER_01: Thank you so much, Sad.
44:11
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for listening to the PG Growth Podcast.
44:14
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44:23
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