February 23, 2024 • 32 mins
Embark on a vibrant journey with Richard Peck, the 'Philanthropy Guy,' as he navigates the heartwarming intersection of finance and generosity. This episode peels back the layers of philanthropy, revealing how a staggering $500 billion is channeled into charitable causes annually. Discover Richard's inspiring transformation from biotechnology to becoming a beacon for strategic giving, revealing the profound impacts that can be made when planning meets passion. His tales from the trenches of estate planning and the intricacies of charitable remainder trusts promise to enlighten and motivate.
We're unwrapping the secrets to making a charity's fundraising engine roar to life, emphasizing the potency of proactive discussions before major financial events unfold. For donors contemplating the best ways to leave a legacy, Richard illustrates the impact of donations beyond cash—think real estate and stocks—and the considerations when selling a business. Aspiring philanthropists and seasoned donors alike will glean wisdom from Richard's expertise on the dance of donor-advised funds and private foundations, ensuring that every charitable action is as strategic as it is sincere.
As the baton of wealth is passed to a new generation, the landscape of wealth management and philanthropy is rapidly evolving. Richard sheds light on why 91% of inheritors seek new financial guidance and how advisors can incorporate giving strategies to retain them. He also shares a slice of joy from his 30-year love affair with improvisational comedy, drawing parallels to the spontaneous nature of life's journey. This episode is not just a conversation; it's an invitation to step into the realm of philanthropy with purpose and a touch of play, as we cheer on everyone crafting their narrative of giving.
Richard C. Peck
Richard C. Peck Consulting, LLC
Cell: 603-387-3897
E-mail: ThePhilanthropyGuy@gmail.com
Website: https://www.thephilanthropyguy.com/
Let’s Get Social!
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GreenwaldRealtyTeam
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rongreenwald/
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCc5lW4Y9fqItxOtZfn3vgvw
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/company/greenwald-realty-team
Website: https://www.greenwaldrealtyteam.com/
Greenwald Realty Team
Senior Real Estate Specialists
(844) 782-9674
DRE 01264025
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Ron Greenwald (00:27):
Welcome in.
My name is Ron Greenwald andthis is the Ron Greenwald
podcast.
This podcast serves as alightning rod of information to
help you proceed in life.
Life is an improv and we wantto give you the tools to guide
you through, to make informeddecisions.
(00:48):
What you do with that is up toyou.
But you don't know what youdon't know.
The goal is to bring in thebest and the brightest people to
give you information,understanding, compassion and
triumph as you weave your waythrough life.
And I am honored and thrilled tohave a very special guest today
(01:09):
Richard Peck.
Richard Peck has the mostfascinating website called the
Philanthropy Guy.
I just love what he does for aliving because I believe, if I
have this right, $500 billionwith a B dollars are given out
to charities and nonprofitsevery year.
(01:30):
And really the tools, thetransfer of wealth over the next
20 years.
Guess what?
I'm a baby boomer and guesswhat Over the next 20 years is
going to happen?
The wealth that I accumulatedfrom the greatest generation
passed down to the baby boomgeneration and now is going to
pass down to the next generation.
(01:50):
So, without any further ado, Iwant to introduce you to Richard
Peck.
Richard Peck is a certifiedfinancial planner.
CAP stands for what RickChartered advisor in
philanthropy, Philanthropy andCHFC is what stands for what.
Richard Peck (02:11):
Your financial consultant so.
Chartered .
Ron Greenwald (02:14):
Rick, take us on your journey.
I really am always fascinated.
You didn't grow up going, I'mgoing to be the philanthropy.
I assume you didn't grow up.
I'm going to be thephilanthropy guy.
No, no.
So you come out of college fromwhere?
And just take us a little biton that journey with us.
Richard Peck (02:34):
Sure, I came out of college.
I went to college forbiotechnology.
So already you're not going tobe able to see a link here,
right, biotechnology.
I did that for three years.
At the end of three years incollege I said you know what?
I'm not sure this is for me.
And then I switched to Englishright, which is every parent's
dream.
So I went to-.
Ron Greenwald (02:56):
And they go.
Why am I paying for this?
But?
Richard Peck (02:58):
anyway.
Actually, my parents were verycool about it, I have to say in
retrospect.
So I was concentration inwriting, which actually has
helped me a lot, believe it ornot.
I've really drawn from that mywhole life.
I'm really clear about goodwriting skills.
So I left there and then Ithought I'd be a teacher, but I
didn't really know how to be ateacher.
I was in the Boston area and Iwas like I don't know what the
(03:19):
track is, which I'm really gladthese days there's a lot of
career centers at colleges,because I think people like me
would have used that.
Anyway, I kind of flounderedaround a little bit.
I moved to Vermont with my soonto be wife and I got a job at
Progressive Insurance.
Already, you're still notseeing a thread here, right?
So Progressive Insurance I wasa claims adjuster and so I did
(03:42):
that for three years BeforeProgressive was a big company.
It was really interestingactually to go around and look
at people who are damaged carsand maybe they're injured, and
just kind of settled claims,right?
So I said I don't want to dothis forever, although it was a
really interesting learningexperience.
What I really want to do, Iwant to be a stockbroker.
I want to be a financialadvisor.
So then I went and studied andgot my Series 7, my Series 63,
(04:06):
my Series 65 at the time and mylife accident and health and I
went to work for AmericanExpress Financial Advisors,
which is now a Mara Prize.
Ron Greenwald (04:14):
Is this in Vermont?
Is this in Vermont?
Well?
Richard Peck (04:16):
in Vermont.
Yep, I was in Williston,vermont, which is where the
Vermont headquarters were, and Idid that for a total of seven
years as a financial advisor.
So I worked in Vermont and alsoin New Hampshire.
But around 2003, which I wasabout five years in, at that
(04:37):
point my wife was working atDartmouth College and she said
let's see if there's anythinghere at Dartmouth that would be
of interest to you.
And I said I'm not sure ifthere's anything at Dartmouth
that would be good for me,because I'm a financial advisor.
And what would I do atDartmouth?
And so she said well, just,let's just see.
And so we looked at a positioncalled Associate Director of
Gift Planning and I said, hmm,that seems interesting because
it's what is that kind of thing?
Ron Greenwald (05:00):
Yeah?
Richard Peck (05:00):
And it was like what you do is you focus on
bequest intentions, charitablegift annuities, charitable
remainder trusts, like thingsthat were estate planning
oriented but also with aphilanthropic focus.
And it was very soft.
All I had to do was go aroundthe country, meet with alums
very casually, like you and Iare talking right now.
We'd have lunch or something,and I'd bring them the good news
(05:23):
of Dartmouth and then I wouldsay, hey, thanks for your past
contributions, have you everthought about making a gift in
this way or that way?
And they'd be like yeah, sure,I'll think about that, or I'll
do it, or you know.
And then I'd travel to the nexttown.
Did you have?
Ron Greenwald (05:36):
enough knowledge of all those terms charitable
remainder, trusts and all thatto go okay, I mean, did you have
that you gave?
They gave you that knowledge,that's discussed that.
Richard Peck (05:46):
Some of it I came with that knowledge, but you
definitely get a lot of it onthe job, especially in terms of
running software illustrationsfor charitable gift annuities or
software illustrations forcharitable remainder trusts.
So that was really the heartand soul of what we were doing.
We also did things calledpooled income funds.
So we would just runillustrations for people and say
this is what your tax deductionwould be, this is what your
(06:09):
projected income stream mightlook like, and so on, and that's
a lot of what we did.
We didn't do a lot of the onesyou were talking about.
We would know them, we would beable to talk high level about
them, but at the end of the daywe were not attorneys and we
weren't even financial advisorsat Dartmouth and we weren't CPAs
.
We would like lead them rightup to the edge and say let's
bring in your CPA, let's bringin your the state planning
(06:32):
attorney, let's bring in yourfinancial advisor.
So a lot of it was teeing upthe ball in ways that these
advisors not always some of themare really good at it, but many
of them were not familiar witha lot of this stuff.
So we would kind of make thatbridge, I guess, between what
the that Lum wanted to do andwhat the advisors could help
them do.
We were right there in themiddle, okay, you're going to
(06:55):
get in the first base.
Yeah, we were like, not thebrokers.
We weren't the brokers, but wewere the conveners.
We were the people bringingpeople together.
The art of that is you'retrying to educate potential
donors or existing donors in away that doesn't make them feel
stupid.
You're also trying to do thesame thing with their advisors.
You're not trying to put themon the spot and say what do you
(07:17):
mean?
You don't know what acharitable lead anuity trust is.
I was a Dartmouth for four yearsin that role.
Then I became director of giftplanning at the medical school
at Dartmouth and director ofgift planning for the hospital
that was nearby called DartmouthHitchcock Medical Center.
Then I grew from that role witha team to major gifts, which
(07:37):
were $50,000 or more outrightgifts, and then I moved into
principal giving, which was amillion dollars or more.
Then I held on to the plangiving piece the whole while,
both for the medical school andthe hospital.
So there's a lot going on and Ihad a whole team of people as
well.
It was a great job.
Then, in 2017, I left, notbecause I didn't enjoy it there,
(08:01):
but because then I went towarda job called the Vice President
for Development and FullAnthropy Services at the New
Hampshire Charitable Foundation,which was a statewide community
foundation, we would work withpeople who were potential donors
, existing donors, professionaladvisors again educating
professional advisors and justtrying to center ourselves on
(08:21):
what is the donor trying toaccomplish.
In the past they're clearlyinterested in education and
clearly interested in healthcare.
Now it was like they might beinterested in the environment,
they might be interested inveterans, they might be
interested in homelessness, theymight be interested in mental
health.
So they had a variety ofinterests and that's what we
would center ourselves on andsay how can I help you make the
(08:42):
impact you're looking to make asan individual or as a family,
and how can we use the NewHampshire Charitable Foundation
to do that?
So and then about eight monthsago, I went into private
practice as an independentphilanthropy consultant, taking
everything that I think I'velearned and trying to apply it
to nonprofits, to donors and toprofessional advisors similar
(09:08):
audiences that I was workingwith before and just try to give
them what they need in whateverway, shape or form that might
look like.
Ron Greenwald (09:16):
So, when you decide to make that leap of
faith, what is the mission andvision of the charitable guy?
Richard Peck (09:26):
Yeah, my role is really to provide value at the
end of the day and to fill ingaps where there are gaps.
For example, nonprofits many ofthem have no fundraising
program at all.
So they'll come to me and saywe need to build a fundraising
program from scratch.
I can help you do that.
Sometimes they have afundraising program but it's not
(09:49):
as robust as it could be.
So they say we need a littlebit of help, we need to
supercharge this a little bit.
Or they're going into acampaign.
They're trying to raise moneyin a very formalized way and
they need somebody to help themdo that.
So I bring a suite of servicesaround that.
Or I bring in other people thatI know to say let me help you
with copywriting, or let me helpyou with database, or let me
(10:10):
help you with grant writing.
These things I don't do, butI'll bring these people in to
round out the team.
Ron Greenwald (10:17):
So what I like to do is dive into each category a
little bit with you Because,again for people that understand
what I do, I deal a lot withestate planning attorneys,
wealth managers, third-partytrust departments, and it's just
so frustrating when I see astate administration and
(10:40):
somebody's getting a bunch ofmoney from mom and dad and the
charitable component was neverconsidered in the estate plan.
So the word empowerment is Idon't know if it's an overused
word, but it's a very importantword to get people to understand
what they can do with theirmoney.
So let's take the donorspecific.
(11:01):
Let's talk about the donorfirst, then the financial
advisor and then the estateplanning attorney, kind of in
that order of.
That's okay.
Your role with the donor how doyou get a donor?
Or what is your conversationwith Mr and Mrs Jones?
Or if I could introduce you toMr and Mrs Jones who've got a
(11:21):
state of $10 million, what wouldyou say to them?
Richard Peck (11:24):
Well, I really start with a place of like why
are we talking today?
What is it that you're hopingto accomplish from our
conversation?
And just try to solicit thatout of them a little bit.
They might say things like thiswe've been giving money our
whole lives, but we don't knowif we're doing anything
impactful.
We've been giving to thesethree or four or five charities
and we feel good about it, butwe don't know whether or not
(11:45):
we're actually making impact.
Can you help us understand that?
Or they'll say we're thinkingabout setting up a private
foundation, but we're not sureif that's what we should do.
Should we set up a privatefoundation?
Should we set up a donor advicefund, or should we just make
outright gifts?
What vehicle should we use?
Another thing people say is I'mthinking about this asset to
(12:07):
donate.
I don't know how to do it.
I went to this nonprofit andthey said they don't take real
estate, even though I want togive them a million dollars in
real estate.
I don't know what to do here.
Is there some other entity thatcan take the real estate as a
donation and then give them thenet proceeds?
These are the questions thatpeople ask.
So $10 million could be outrightgiving.
(12:29):
That's what I'm talking aboutright now, but it could also be
I want to leave that $10 millionto charity when I pass, giving
a little bit to my family,giving as little as possible to
the government, maybe, and thengiving the most I can to the
charities I care about.
So it's kind of the sameconversation, except that the
outright giving is about now andfuture-based giving, like
(12:52):
bequests, are about the future.
But they really centeredthemselves on the same type of
impetus Like why are you doingthis?
What are you hoping to get outof it?
What are their tax implications?
Is it about knowledge aboutwhat you're doing and legacy?
I mean there's all kinds offacets that, all kinds of roads
you can go down with theindividual.
Ron Greenwald (13:12):
So before we started recording you, we were
talking about what you're goingto be doing on behalf of a
business consultant and Ithought that was really
fascinating because over thelast six months I have started
to really work or talk tomergers and acquisition
attorneys because again, I'mgoing to come back to the aging
(13:35):
baby boomer who's had thatbusiness for 40 years, who now
wants to sell it and they'regoing to come into a liquidity
of a bunch of money and thebusiness consultant or the
mergers and acquisitionattorneys, should they need to
be talking to you.
Richard Peck (13:51):
That's right.
I believe me, Ron.
I have done my very best totalk to anyone that has to do
with either thinking abouttransitioning their business.
You know, five years prior,just try to get in front of them
and say, hey, when you sellwhich you will eventually sell,
what's your life going to looklike after that?
(14:11):
What kind of impact do you wantto make with the money?
What do you want to do withyour time?
You know what's your life looklike in that next phase.
That is really hard to nailpeople down because they're
going 100 miles an hour in thebusiness that they have.
The people that they're workingwith are busy.
It's like it feels like, well,yeah, we'll talk about that when
we get there.
What the problem is?
They get there and they haven'ttalked about it.
(14:31):
So now they're in this rush tosay, oh, can I make a gift now,
Can I make a $50,000 gift tothis?
It just feels very un-fleshedout.
It just feels very on the flyand probably not well thought
out.
So then the next phase is like Ialready sold the business and
now I have money and I'm goingto be taxed on it.
What should I do?
So I mean, you take what youcan get.
(14:53):
In my position, You're in frontof people whenever the pain
point presents itself, butideally I'm talking to people
long before any of this happens,because it's all ties together.
Maybe the planning for thattransition and what kind of
impact they're going to makephilanthropically is going to
tie into how are they going torun the business today, what
(15:14):
kind of valuation are theyshooting for, and so on.
It feels like it's all tiedtogether, even though ultimately
, the business giving money awayor the individual giving money
away feels almost like anafterthought Something I'll do
later when I make enough money,when I have a big business to
sell Almost like they're goingto jinx themselves if they talk
(15:34):
about philanthropy now.
So it's weird.
Ron Greenwald (15:38):
It's kind of strange actually so in your
years I've always fascinated.
Again, when I got into the rolethat I do now and in the real
estate world, I was dealingmainly with the greatest
generation and a lot of themgrew up in the depression and
giving away money was very thatwas, I don't know, a hard thing
to do, and now we're more intothe baby boomer generation.
(16:02):
Have you seen a shift in theway when you were at Dartmouth
versus now and the way peopleare coming to you and their
thought process?
Richard Peck (16:13):
I would say the biggest difference is that in
the past and there's a lot ofstudies on this in the past
people gave a lot of people gavesimply out of pure loyalty,
like at Dartmouth.
They didn't question Dartmouth.
Dartmouth, they talked aboutbleeding green at Dartmouth.
That means that you just loveDartmouth and you would do
anything for Dartmouth, and thatwas so true.
They weren't questioning like,let me look at your financials.
(16:35):
What kind of impact is thisgoing to make?
They'd just be like, hey, thisis what I can give you, this is
my class gift, this is the bestof my ability, this is what I
can do.
Now I think people are a littlebit more like.
I do actually want to know whatthe impact is going to be.
I do want to know what is goingto happen when I make this gift
.
In the case of Dartmouth, Idon't think they question
(16:56):
Dartmouth's financials.
They just are just a little bitmore curious what is this going
to do?
And so I don't think they'reinappropriate questions.
I think it's just more of agenerational thing.
Maybe it's the baby boomerswere people who questioned
society, questioned authority.
They just want to kick thetires a little bit where the
greatest generation, the silentgeneration were sort of like hey
(17:17):
, we fall in with what istraditional, we do what we've
always done, because that's whatwe've done.
Where future generations are alittle bit more I don't want to
say skeptical, but they're justa little bit more inquisitive,
we want the details more.
Yeah, yeah, they just want Imean not that they want every
single detail, but they kind ofjust want to know is this a good
(17:37):
decision for me?
Is this a good decision for myfamily?
Do I understand what I'm doing?
Do I understand what the impactis going to be?
So they ask more questions andthey're more detail oriented,
and I don't blame them for that.
I think that's fine.
Ron Greenwald (17:52):
So on your website, the philanthropy guy
who are you driving that towardsor who are you driving that to,
to look at.
Richard Peck (18:01):
Three audiences the nonprofits, as I mentioned,
who are looking for money,looking to raise more money.
The donors, as I described thedonors who are making those
different decisions.
They're looking for help.
Those are a little bit harderto find that nonprofits seem to
present themselves prettyquickly.
The donors sometimes don't eventhink they'd need a
philanthropic advisor becausethey kind of feel like, well,
(18:21):
I've kind of been doing thismyself for a while and like
what's the problem?
But I think once you do it andyou start to question, hey,
maybe I do need a little bitmore guidance and detail, those
are the ones that seek that out.
Which leads to the third groupthat I market to, which is the
CPAs.
Wealth advisors trust in thestate's attorneys family offices
.
They're close to those donors.
(18:42):
They're the ones who can makeor break a conversation.
If they downplay the importanceof philanthropy, then you
better believe I'm not going toget an appointment with those
people.
But if they go, you know what,you know who you need to talk to
.
You need to talk to Rick.
He's going to be able to helpyou out and maybe just start
with him, start and have aconversation with him and see
where that goes.
So you can see they're allsymbiotically tied together.
(19:04):
Also, the donors and the wealthadvisors.
They're also on boards.
They're on boards fornonprofits, so they're always
thinking about the board andsaying, hey, the board actually
needs to raise money.
So it's all symbiotically tiedtogether and that's why I market
to those three audiences.
Ron Greenwald (19:22):
And so we have.
We've had this conversation andthis is one of the wealth
managers of the world.
God love them all.
Give us a stats.
When mom and dad pass away andthe money filters down to the
next generation, what happens tothat money with the wealth
manager?
So?
Richard Peck (19:39):
the statistic I think you're referring to is
when the first generation diesand the second generation
inherits the money.
91% of the time, the secondgeneration takes the money and
goes to a different financialinstitution, as if to say I
never got any love from myparents advisor, so I'm taking
(20:00):
my ball and going somewhere elseand playing in a different park
.
So that's what happens.
It's 91% of the time, which Ithink is an outrageously high
number.
Only 9% of the time do theyactually leave their money with
their parents financial advisoryfirm.
Ron Greenwald (20:15):
So the wealth manager.
What do you?
Well, if I asked you to come inand do a talk to a group of
wealth managers, is thatsomething that you would be
willing to do, or obviouslywilling to do?
Is what would you tell them?
What would you speak to themabout?
Richard Peck (20:33):
So I actually have 17 plus presentations that I've
curated over the past year anda half to those audiences.
I talked to them about thingslike what's the difference
between a donor advice fund anda private foundation and a
community foundation or outrightgiving?
What is corporate philanthropy?
What is family philanthropy?
(20:54):
What is the secure act 2.0 andhow does it affect philanthropy?
What are some complex cases wecan talk about?
Just to set the stage, what isnon-cash asset donation?
What does that look like,including real estate or
tangible personal property orwhatever?
So I'm really trying to, as youcan see, have a lot of depth
and breadth to what I'm offering, but a lot of the advisors,
(21:17):
they just need a primer.
One of my presentations ishere's why inserting charitable
giving into your practice issmart, both for your clients and
for your practice and, by theway, it can actually earn you
more money, even though it'scounterintuitive to think that
you're helping people give awaymoney, but you're actually
getting more money and that'swhat the statistics will show.
(21:38):
So I have all thesepresentations, that kind of pull
out of my hat to say what areyou looking for?
A wealth advisory audience,what can I teach you?
What will resonate with you?
And then inevitably, one leadsto another, leads to another.
They'll be like oh, that was areally good presentation, so
what else do you have?
Well, I have this.
What do you think about that?
Yeah, sure, let's talk aboutthat.
(21:59):
So it's sort of an ongoing drip, drip, drip, drip, drip
education, just to get themacclimated to this field.
And sadly, there aren't a lotof people like me who are going
to these audiences veryspecifically and saying I don't
have one presentation for you, Ihave a multitude of
presentations for you.
What do you want to know?
What do you want to learn?
I'm here for you.
(22:19):
I can connect you with otherpeople.
Like, I want you to have thephilanthropic conversation, I
want you to be comfortable withit, and there's no shortage of
resources that I have to offeryou.
Ron Greenwald (22:30):
So in the time left, talk about the estate plan
.
Again, that three-legged stool.
I call at the estate planningattorney, the client and the
wealth manager.
I always put the CPA over herebecause I can never get them on
the phone, no matter what I do.
So I don't really get theminvolved.
But the estate planningattorney, what is their
(22:51):
resistance?
Because I find resistance inthe business.
Richard Peck (22:54):
It's funny, actually, of all the advisors
that I worked with at the NewHampshire Charitable Foundation,
the ones I had to convince theleast were the trust in the
state's attorneys.
And here's why they would sayall right, my single client, my
client, my client couple with nokids are looking to do their
estate planning.
We're figuring out how tominimize taxes.
(23:16):
There are no heirs, so who arethey going to give the money to?
They don't have any nieces ornephews that are thinking about
charity.
Hey, new Hampshire CharitableFoundation, can you help them
devise some sort of a requestand tension plan of action, some
sort of a memorandum?
So I didn't feel in general thatestate planning attorneys were
too hard to convince.
I felt like the challenge wasI'm not sure that they knew
(23:37):
enough about the whole universeof options, and so I felt like I
was educating them about thingsbeyond a donor advice fund or
beyond some sort of elementalwork as it relates to charitable
giving.
And again, no hard feelings.
It was just like that's justnot their wheelhouse.
So I would say just like, helpme, help you, help me, help your
(23:59):
clients and make the bestdecisions for themselves.
So that was the easiestaudience for the trust in the
state's attorneys, but I stillfelt like they were limited in
what they knew and the best ofthem would say, hey, we know,
we're limited in what we know.
That's why we're bringing youto the table.
That's why we want you to talkto our clients is because we
know that we're missing some ofthis information that we know
(24:21):
could be beneficial.
Ron Greenwald (24:23):
I want you to give me your vision five years
from now.
Rick, the philanthropy guy asyou know, I am just enthralled
with it.
In the last year I have done adeep dive in my work because,
again in the last five years,we've had a tremendous rise in
(24:44):
appreciation of real estatecommercial, residential,
multifamily, everything.
So again, that 80 year old baby, soon to be 80 year old baby
boomer, who has highlyappreciated rental property.
What do we do with that?
And where do you?
Where can I take?
(25:04):
Where is the philanthropy guygoing?
Richard Peck (25:08):
I actually my grand vision is just to be that
valued resource.
If people started with me andjust said here's the problem I'm
bringing to you, I would beable to help them solve it,
either myself in my practice, orI'd be able to connect them to
the people that they need toconnect with.
In that way, I feel like I'mproviding a service, which is
I'm getting your questionanswered, I'm helping you solve
(25:31):
a problem for yourself.
Even though that sounds veryelemental, what I just said,
it's not true.
People can't always find theanswers to their questions.
They struggle to say who's theadvisor who's going to help me
get to the bottom of this orflesh this out.
So in that way, five years fromnow, 10 years from now, I just
(25:52):
want it to be easier for people.
Whether you're a donor or yourepresent a nonprofit or you
represent a professionaladvisory leg of the stool, you
know where to go and you knowhow to find what you need.
Ron Greenwald (26:08):
If a nonprofit does have a director of plan
giving, would that be someoneyou could support them and get
them out and help them teachthem what to say and what to do?
Instead of getting that $50check, maybe get that $1 million
charitable donation through agift of real estate.
Richard Peck (26:28):
Yeah, absolutely so.
Usually the director ofdevelopment, sometimes it's a
one-person show.
They don't even have a plangiving director, they're just
out there wearing all the hatsannual fund, major gifts, plan
gifts and so generally whatthey'll do is they'll see the
need, they'll see the immediacy,they'll go to their CEO or
their board and say, hey, weneed somebody to help us here.
(26:48):
So the CEO and the board andthe director of development will
talk and then they'll say thisis what we need, which includes
what you said education around.
How do we move from a $50 giftto a $1 million gift simply by
advertising that we take on $1million gifts through the form
of real estate or other types ofthings.
So it's an education process.
Ron Greenwald (27:09):
So I just have to close it up 30 years I have
this note 30 years of doingimprov.
How did that come about?
I just have to.
I'm fascinated.
Richard Peck (27:20):
So first of all I want to differentiate.
A lot of people can confuseimprovisational comedy on stage,
like ensemble work, withstandup comedy.
I don't do standup comedy.
I have never done standupcomedy like Jerry Seinfeld style
.
I go in and this is how itstarted.
I went to a show improv Boston1992.
I went and I watched this crazyshow where they did short form
(27:44):
improv, just like what you seeon a show called whose line is
it anyway?
And then they did long formimprov in the second half of the
show and I walked away and I gooh, I don't know what I just
saw here, but I want to do this.
I want to get up on stage anddo what they're doing.
This looks really fun.
There's no lines, they're justtaking suggestions from the
audience and doing these crazygames on the fly.
(28:06):
Like how do they do this?
This is like magic.
And so I took courses withimprov Boston.
I took a beginner course,intermediate course, I almost
took an advanced course, butthey didn't have enough people
signing up for it, so I ended upgoing and moving the same time.
I moved to Burlington, I taughta course on improv that all the
stuff I learned from improvBoston.
(28:27):
And then I ended up ultimatelyforming a troupe that's called
kamikaze comedy, and then we dida comedic not stand up, but Can
we see that on YouTube?
Ron Greenwald (28:40):
Is that on YouTube?
Richard Peck (28:40):
Actually, no, it's funny.
Somebody was asking me theother day do we have any stuff
on YouTube?
It's like no, we never reallyrecorded our stuff.
It was all live in person,generally not recorded, but it
was a load of fun and anyway, Ijust learned a lot about it.
It's fun I actually did somelast night in here in Charlotte
area but I love it because itreally gets your brain working
(29:05):
in different ways and it helpsyou to interact in ways that
only improv can teach you theskills of listening and trying
to be present and just helppeople be their best selves.
That's really what improv isall about, not about you.
It's about the group.
It's about what's happening onstage.
(29:25):
It's about sort of adding valueto the whole scene.
Ron Greenwald (29:29):
I'm sure you incorporate that into your work,
because listening, listening,listening is when you're in
front of a donor, it's all aboutlistening and getting him or
her to the promised land oftriumph so they can see what
their money could do and whythey're alive.
I'm always like let's do thiswhy you can enjoy seeing the
(29:49):
fruits of your labor ahead oftime.
So that's always my thing.
Richard Peck (29:55):
Absolutely.
Ron Greenwald (29:56):
Rick Peck, the philanthropy guycom.
The philanthropy guycom, andit's the philanthropy guy at
gmailcom Again, my listeningaudience.
I am urging you to think aboutthis.
You just have a highlyappreciated assets taxes, the
(30:23):
financial cliff coming down intwo years in terms of estate
planning, estate taxation.
Talk to Rick, get the questionsthat then Rick can provide you.
If I'm summarizing this right,rick can provide you the
questions to go to your wealthmanager with, to go to your
(30:44):
estate planning attorney with,so that the conversation is a
two-way love affair with thoseprofessional advisors rather
than them telling you what youshould be thinking.
Would that be a good summation?
Richard Peck (30:58):
That's a great summary.
I exactly I try to give peoplethe language they need, give
them the questions they need toask, or give them the answers
that they're looking for, justto make sure that we're doing
right by the client.
So, yeah, absolutely, it startswith me listening to what the
individual or the couple istrying to accomplish.
Ron Greenwald (31:17):
Rick Peck, thank you for being here today.
Good luck with your journey.
I'm here to encourage.
If you ever need my support inthis, I'm all in Because, again,
as everybody knows, I have 15years of stories of angry
beneficiaries and I'm going youknow what?
Just be happy you're gettinganything, because I think they
(31:38):
should have all given it tocharity.
Richard Peck (31:41):
I'm with you.
Ron Greenwald (31:42):
I'm with you so we're all on the same page and I
hope that you're I mean not, Ihope I know it's gonna thrive.
The demographics, the moneythat out there and what you can
do to help people is gonna befantastic.
So thank you for being herewith us today.
Richard Peck (32:01):
Well, thank you for having me, ron, and thank
you for being such a cheerleader.
I really do appreciate it.
Enjoy, thank you.
Ron Greenwald (32:08):
Thanks for tuning in to the Ron Greenwald show.
This is Ron Greenwald.
Today's guest was Rick Peckwith the Philanthropy Guy.
Again, I urge you to listen toRick's words and share those
with other people in your sphereof influence, because the
opportunity is now to reallymake a difference in the society
(32:29):
that we live in, and that's thebottom line.
Do what we can do now, andthank you for tuning in.
Welcome in.
My name is Ron Greenwald andthis is the Ron Greenwald
podcast.
This podcast serves as alightning rod of information to
help you proceed in life.
Life is an improv and we wantto give you the tools to guide
you through, to make informeddecisions.
(00:48):
What you do with that is up toyou.
But you don't know what youdon't know.
The goal is to bring in thebest and the brightest people to
give you information,understanding, compassion and
triumph as you weave your waythrough life.
And I am honored and thrilled tohave a very special guest today
(01:09):
Richard Peck.
Richard Peck has the mostfascinating website called the
Philanthropy Guy.
I just love what he does for aliving because I believe, if I
have this right, $500 billionwith a B dollars are given out
to charities and nonprofitsevery year.
(01:30):
And really the tools, thetransfer of wealth over the next
20 years.
Guess what?
I'm a baby boomer and guesswhat Over the next 20 years is
going to happen?
The wealth that I accumulatedfrom the greatest generation
passed down to the baby boomgeneration and now is going to
pass down to the next generation.
(01:50):
So, without any further ado, Iwant to introduce you to Richard
Peck.
Richard Peck is a certifiedfinancial planner.
CAP stands for what RickChartered advisor in
philanthropy, Philanthropy andCHFC is what stands for what.
Richard Peck (02:11):
Your financial consultant so.
Chartered .
Ron Greenwald (02:14):
Rick, take us on your journey.
I really am always fascinated.
You didn't grow up going, I'mgoing to be the philanthropy.
I assume you didn't grow up.
I'm going to be thephilanthropy guy.
No, no.
So you come out of college fromwhere?
And just take us a little biton that journey with us.
Richard Peck (02:34):
Sure, I came out of college.
I went to college forbiotechnology.
So already you're not going tobe able to see a link here,
right, biotechnology.
I did that for three years.
At the end of three years incollege I said you know what?
I'm not sure this is for me.
And then I switched to Englishright, which is every parent's
dream.
So I went to-.
Ron Greenwald (02:56):
And they go.
Why am I paying for this?
But?
Richard Peck (02:58):
anyway.
Actually, my parents were verycool about it, I have to say in
retrospect.
So I was concentration inwriting, which actually has
helped me a lot, believe it ornot.
I've really drawn from that mywhole life.
I'm really clear about goodwriting skills.
So I left there and then Ithought I'd be a teacher, but I
didn't really know how to be ateacher.
I was in the Boston area and Iwas like I don't know what the
(03:19):
track is, which I'm really gladthese days there's a lot of
career centers at colleges,because I think people like me
would have used that.
Anyway, I kind of flounderedaround a little bit.
I moved to Vermont with my soonto be wife and I got a job at
Progressive Insurance.
Already, you're still notseeing a thread here, right?
So Progressive Insurance I wasa claims adjuster and so I did
(03:42):
that for three years BeforeProgressive was a big company.
It was really interestingactually to go around and look
at people who are damaged carsand maybe they're injured, and
just kind of settled claims,right?
So I said I don't want to dothis forever, although it was a
really interesting learningexperience.
What I really want to do, Iwant to be a stockbroker.
I want to be a financialadvisor.
So then I went and studied andgot my Series 7, my Series 63,
(04:06):
my Series 65 at the time and mylife accident and health and I
went to work for AmericanExpress Financial Advisors,
which is now a Mara Prize.
Ron Greenwald (04:14):
Is this in Vermont?
Is this in Vermont?
Well?
Richard Peck (04:16):
in Vermont.
Yep, I was in Williston,vermont, which is where the
Vermont headquarters were, and Idid that for a total of seven
years as a financial advisor.
So I worked in Vermont and alsoin New Hampshire.
But around 2003, which I wasabout five years in, at that
(04:37):
point my wife was working atDartmouth College and she said
let's see if there's anythinghere at Dartmouth that would be
of interest to you.
And I said I'm not sure ifthere's anything at Dartmouth
that would be good for me,because I'm a financial advisor.
And what would I do atDartmouth?
And so she said well, just,let's just see.
And so we looked at a positioncalled Associate Director of
Gift Planning and I said, hmm,that seems interesting because
it's what is that kind of thing?
Ron Greenwald (05:00):
Yeah?
Richard Peck (05:00):
And it was like what you do is you focus on
bequest intentions, charitablegift annuities, charitable
remainder trusts, like thingsthat were estate planning
oriented but also with aphilanthropic focus.
And it was very soft.
All I had to do was go aroundthe country, meet with alums
very casually, like you and Iare talking right now.
We'd have lunch or something,and I'd bring them the good news
(05:23):
of Dartmouth and then I wouldsay, hey, thanks for your past
contributions, have you everthought about making a gift in
this way or that way?
And they'd be like yeah, sure,I'll think about that, or I'll
do it, or you know.
And then I'd travel to the nexttown.
Did you have?
Ron Greenwald (05:36):
enough knowledge of all those terms charitable
remainder, trusts and all thatto go okay, I mean, did you have
that you gave?
They gave you that knowledge,that's discussed that.
Richard Peck (05:46):
Some of it I came with that knowledge, but you
definitely get a lot of it onthe job, especially in terms of
running software illustrationsfor charitable gift annuities or
software illustrations forcharitable remainder trusts.
So that was really the heartand soul of what we were doing.
We also did things calledpooled income funds.
So we would just runillustrations for people and say
this is what your tax deductionwould be, this is what your
(06:09):
projected income stream mightlook like, and so on, and that's
a lot of what we did.
We didn't do a lot of the onesyou were talking about.
We would know them, we would beable to talk high level about
them, but at the end of the daywe were not attorneys and we
weren't even financial advisorsat Dartmouth and we weren't CPAs
.
We would like lead them rightup to the edge and say let's
bring in your CPA, let's bringin your the state planning
(06:32):
attorney, let's bring in yourfinancial advisor.
So a lot of it was teeing upthe ball in ways that these
advisors not always some of themare really good at it, but many
of them were not familiar witha lot of this stuff.
So we would kind of make thatbridge, I guess, between what
the that Lum wanted to do andwhat the advisors could help
them do.
We were right there in themiddle, okay, you're going to
(06:55):
get in the first base.
Yeah, we were like, not thebrokers.
We weren't the brokers, but wewere the conveners.
We were the people bringingpeople together.
The art of that is you'retrying to educate potential
donors or existing donors in away that doesn't make them feel
stupid.
You're also trying to do thesame thing with their advisors.
You're not trying to put themon the spot and say what do you
(07:17):
mean?
You don't know what acharitable lead anuity trust is.
I was a Dartmouth for four yearsin that role.
Then I became director of giftplanning at the medical school
at Dartmouth and director ofgift planning for the hospital
that was nearby called DartmouthHitchcock Medical Center.
Then I grew from that role witha team to major gifts, which
(07:37):
were $50,000 or more outrightgifts, and then I moved into
principal giving, which was amillion dollars or more.
Then I held on to the plangiving piece the whole while,
both for the medical school andthe hospital.
So there's a lot going on and Ihad a whole team of people as
well.
It was a great job.
Then, in 2017, I left, notbecause I didn't enjoy it there,
(08:01):
but because then I went towarda job called the Vice President
for Development and FullAnthropy Services at the New
Hampshire Charitable Foundation,which was a statewide community
foundation, we would work withpeople who were potential donors
, existing donors, professionaladvisors again educating
professional advisors and justtrying to center ourselves on
(08:21):
what is the donor trying toaccomplish.
In the past they're clearlyinterested in education and
clearly interested in healthcare.
Now it was like they might beinterested in the environment,
they might be interested inveterans, they might be
interested in homelessness, theymight be interested in mental
health.
So they had a variety ofinterests and that's what we
would center ourselves on andsay how can I help you make the
(08:42):
impact you're looking to make asan individual or as a family,
and how can we use the NewHampshire Charitable Foundation
to do that?
So and then about eight monthsago, I went into private
practice as an independentphilanthropy consultant, taking
everything that I think I'velearned and trying to apply it
to nonprofits, to donors and toprofessional advisors similar
(09:08):
audiences that I was workingwith before and just try to give
them what they need in whateverway, shape or form that might
look like.
Ron Greenwald (09:16):
So, when you decide to make that leap of
faith, what is the mission andvision of the charitable guy?
Richard Peck (09:26):
Yeah, my role is really to provide value at the
end of the day and to fill ingaps where there are gaps.
For example, nonprofits many ofthem have no fundraising
program at all.
So they'll come to me and saywe need to build a fundraising
program from scratch.
I can help you do that.
Sometimes they have afundraising program but it's not
(09:49):
as robust as it could be.
So they say we need a littlebit of help, we need to
supercharge this a little bit.
Or they're going into acampaign.
They're trying to raise moneyin a very formalized way and
they need somebody to help themdo that.
So I bring a suite of servicesaround that.
Or I bring in other people thatI know to say let me help you
with copywriting, or let me helpyou with database, or let me
(10:10):
help you with grant writing.
These things I don't do, butI'll bring these people in to
round out the team.
Ron Greenwald (10:17):
So what I like to do is dive into each category a
little bit with you Because,again for people that understand
what I do, I deal a lot withestate planning attorneys,
wealth managers, third-partytrust departments, and it's just
so frustrating when I see astate administration and
(10:40):
somebody's getting a bunch ofmoney from mom and dad and the
charitable component was neverconsidered in the estate plan.
So the word empowerment is Idon't know if it's an overused
word, but it's a very importantword to get people to understand
what they can do with theirmoney.
So let's take the donorspecific.
(11:01):
Let's talk about the donorfirst, then the financial
advisor and then the estateplanning attorney, kind of in
that order of.
That's okay.
Your role with the donor how doyou get a donor?
Or what is your conversationwith Mr and Mrs Jones?
Or if I could introduce you toMr and Mrs Jones who've got a
(11:21):
state of $10 million, what wouldyou say to them?
Richard Peck (11:24):
Well, I really start with a place of like why
are we talking today?
What is it that you're hopingto accomplish from our
conversation?
And just try to solicit thatout of them a little bit.
They might say things like thiswe've been giving money our
whole lives, but we don't knowif we're doing anything
impactful.
We've been giving to thesethree or four or five charities
and we feel good about it, butwe don't know whether or not
(11:45):
we're actually making impact.
Can you help us understand that?
Or they'll say we're thinkingabout setting up a private
foundation, but we're not sureif that's what we should do.
Should we set up a privatefoundation?
Should we set up a donor advicefund, or should we just make
outright gifts?
What vehicle should we use?
Another thing people say is I'mthinking about this asset to
(12:07):
donate.
I don't know how to do it.
I went to this nonprofit andthey said they don't take real
estate, even though I want togive them a million dollars in
real estate.
I don't know what to do here.
Is there some other entity thatcan take the real estate as a
donation and then give them thenet proceeds?
These are the questions thatpeople ask.
So $10 million could be outrightgiving.
(12:29):
That's what I'm talking aboutright now, but it could also be
I want to leave that $10 millionto charity when I pass, giving
a little bit to my family,giving as little as possible to
the government, maybe, and thengiving the most I can to the
charities I care about.
So it's kind of the sameconversation, except that the
outright giving is about now andfuture-based giving, like
(12:52):
bequests, are about the future.
But they really centeredthemselves on the same type of
impetus Like why are you doingthis?
What are you hoping to get outof it?
What are their tax implications?
Is it about knowledge aboutwhat you're doing and legacy?
I mean there's all kinds offacets that, all kinds of roads
you can go down with theindividual.
Ron Greenwald (13:12):
So before we started recording you, we were
talking about what you're goingto be doing on behalf of a
business consultant and Ithought that was really
fascinating because over thelast six months I have started
to really work or talk tomergers and acquisition
attorneys because again, I'mgoing to come back to the aging
(13:35):
baby boomer who's had thatbusiness for 40 years, who now
wants to sell it and they'regoing to come into a liquidity
of a bunch of money and thebusiness consultant or the
mergers and acquisitionattorneys, should they need to
be talking to you.
Richard Peck (13:51):
That's right.
I believe me, Ron.
I have done my very best totalk to anyone that has to do
with either thinking abouttransitioning their business.
You know, five years prior,just try to get in front of them
and say, hey, when you sellwhich you will eventually sell,
what's your life going to looklike after that?
(14:11):
What kind of impact do you wantto make with the money?
What do you want to do withyour time?
You know what's your life looklike in that next phase.
That is really hard to nailpeople down because they're
going 100 miles an hour in thebusiness that they have.
The people that they're workingwith are busy.
It's like it feels like, well,yeah, we'll talk about that when
we get there.
What the problem is?
They get there and they haven'ttalked about it.
(14:31):
So now they're in this rush tosay, oh, can I make a gift now,
Can I make a $50,000 gift tothis?
It just feels very un-fleshedout.
It just feels very on the flyand probably not well thought
out.
So then the next phase is like Ialready sold the business and
now I have money and I'm goingto be taxed on it.
What should I do?
So I mean, you take what youcan get.
(14:53):
In my position, You're in frontof people whenever the pain
point presents itself, butideally I'm talking to people
long before any of this happens,because it's all ties together.
Maybe the planning for thattransition and what kind of
impact they're going to makephilanthropically is going to
tie into how are they going torun the business today, what
(15:14):
kind of valuation are theyshooting for, and so on.
It feels like it's all tiedtogether, even though ultimately
, the business giving money awayor the individual giving money
away feels almost like anafterthought Something I'll do
later when I make enough money,when I have a big business to
sell Almost like they're goingto jinx themselves if they talk
(15:34):
about philanthropy now.
So it's weird.
Ron Greenwald (15:38):
It's kind of strange actually so in your
years I've always fascinated.
Again, when I got into the rolethat I do now and in the real
estate world, I was dealingmainly with the greatest
generation and a lot of themgrew up in the depression and
giving away money was very thatwas, I don't know, a hard thing
to do, and now we're more intothe baby boomer generation.
(16:02):
Have you seen a shift in theway when you were at Dartmouth
versus now and the way peopleare coming to you and their
thought process?
Richard Peck (16:13):
I would say the biggest difference is that in
the past and there's a lot ofstudies on this in the past
people gave a lot of people gavesimply out of pure loyalty,
like at Dartmouth.
They didn't question Dartmouth.
Dartmouth, they talked aboutbleeding green at Dartmouth.
That means that you just loveDartmouth and you would do
anything for Dartmouth, and thatwas so true.
They weren't questioning like,let me look at your financials.
(16:35):
What kind of impact is thisgoing to make?
They'd just be like, hey, thisis what I can give you, this is
my class gift, this is the bestof my ability, this is what I
can do.
Now I think people are a littlebit more like.
I do actually want to know whatthe impact is going to be.
I do want to know what is goingto happen when I make this gift
.
In the case of Dartmouth, Idon't think they question
(16:56):
Dartmouth's financials.
They just are just a little bitmore curious what is this going
to do?
And so I don't think they'reinappropriate questions.
I think it's just more of agenerational thing.
Maybe it's the baby boomerswere people who questioned
society, questioned authority.
They just want to kick thetires a little bit where the
greatest generation, the silentgeneration were sort of like hey
(17:17):
, we fall in with what istraditional, we do what we've
always done, because that's whatwe've done.
Where future generations are alittle bit more I don't want to
say skeptical, but they're justa little bit more inquisitive,
we want the details more.
Yeah, yeah, they just want Imean not that they want every
single detail, but they kind ofjust want to know is this a good
(17:37):
decision for me?
Is this a good decision for myfamily?
Do I understand what I'm doing?
Do I understand what the impactis going to be?
So they ask more questions andthey're more detail oriented,
and I don't blame them for that.
I think that's fine.
Ron Greenwald (17:52):
So on your website, the philanthropy guy
who are you driving that towardsor who are you driving that to,
to look at.
Richard Peck (18:01):
Three audiences the nonprofits, as I mentioned,
who are looking for money,looking to raise more money.
The donors, as I described thedonors who are making those
different decisions.
They're looking for help.
Those are a little bit harderto find that nonprofits seem to
present themselves prettyquickly.
The donors sometimes don't eventhink they'd need a
philanthropic advisor becausethey kind of feel like, well,
(18:21):
I've kind of been doing thismyself for a while and like
what's the problem?
But I think once you do it andyou start to question, hey,
maybe I do need a little bitmore guidance and detail, those
are the ones that seek that out.
Which leads to the third groupthat I market to, which is the
CPAs.
Wealth advisors trust in thestate's attorneys family offices
.
They're close to those donors.
(18:42):
They're the ones who can makeor break a conversation.
If they downplay the importanceof philanthropy, then you
better believe I'm not going toget an appointment with those
people.
But if they go, you know what,you know who you need to talk to
.
You need to talk to Rick.
He's going to be able to helpyou out and maybe just start
with him, start and have aconversation with him and see
where that goes.
So you can see they're allsymbiotically tied together.
(19:04):
Also, the donors and the wealthadvisors.
They're also on boards.
They're on boards fornonprofits, so they're always
thinking about the board andsaying, hey, the board actually
needs to raise money.
So it's all symbiotically tiedtogether and that's why I market
to those three audiences.
Ron Greenwald (19:22):
And so we have.
We've had this conversation andthis is one of the wealth
managers of the world.
God love them all.
Give us a stats.
When mom and dad pass away andthe money filters down to the
next generation, what happens tothat money with the wealth
manager?
So?
Richard Peck (19:39):
the statistic I think you're referring to is
when the first generation diesand the second generation
inherits the money.
91% of the time, the secondgeneration takes the money and
goes to a different financialinstitution, as if to say I
never got any love from myparents advisor, so I'm taking
(20:00):
my ball and going somewhere elseand playing in a different park
.
So that's what happens.
It's 91% of the time, which Ithink is an outrageously high
number.
Only 9% of the time do theyactually leave their money with
their parents financial advisoryfirm.
Ron Greenwald (20:15):
So the wealth manager.
What do you?
Well, if I asked you to come inand do a talk to a group of
wealth managers, is thatsomething that you would be
willing to do, or obviouslywilling to do?
Is what would you tell them?
What would you speak to themabout?
Richard Peck (20:33):
So I actually have 17 plus presentations that I've
curated over the past year anda half to those audiences.
I talked to them about thingslike what's the difference
between a donor advice fund anda private foundation and a
community foundation or outrightgiving?
What is corporate philanthropy?
What is family philanthropy?
(20:54):
What is the secure act 2.0 andhow does it affect philanthropy?
What are some complex cases wecan talk about?
Just to set the stage, what isnon-cash asset donation?
What does that look like,including real estate or
tangible personal property orwhatever?
So I'm really trying to, as youcan see, have a lot of depth
and breadth to what I'm offering, but a lot of the advisors,
(21:17):
they just need a primer.
One of my presentations ishere's why inserting charitable
giving into your practice issmart, both for your clients and
for your practice and, by theway, it can actually earn you
more money, even though it'scounterintuitive to think that
you're helping people give awaymoney, but you're actually
getting more money and that'swhat the statistics will show.
(21:38):
So I have all thesepresentations, that kind of pull
out of my hat to say what areyou looking for?
A wealth advisory audience,what can I teach you?
What will resonate with you?
And then inevitably, one leadsto another, leads to another.
They'll be like oh, that was areally good presentation, so
what else do you have?
Well, I have this.
What do you think about that?
Yeah, sure, let's talk aboutthat.
(21:59):
So it's sort of an ongoing drip, drip, drip, drip, drip
education, just to get themacclimated to this field.
And sadly, there aren't a lotof people like me who are going
to these audiences veryspecifically and saying I don't
have one presentation for you, Ihave a multitude of
presentations for you.
What do you want to know?
What do you want to learn?
I'm here for you.
(22:19):
I can connect you with otherpeople.
Like, I want you to have thephilanthropic conversation, I
want you to be comfortable withit, and there's no shortage of
resources that I have to offeryou.
Ron Greenwald (22:30):
So in the time left, talk about the estate plan
.
Again, that three-legged stool.
I call at the estate planningattorney, the client and the
wealth manager.
I always put the CPA over herebecause I can never get them on
the phone, no matter what I do.
So I don't really get theminvolved.
But the estate planningattorney, what is their
(22:51):
resistance?
Because I find resistance inthe business.
Richard Peck (22:54):
It's funny, actually, of all the advisors
that I worked with at the NewHampshire Charitable Foundation,
the ones I had to convince theleast were the trust in the
state's attorneys.
And here's why they would sayall right, my single client, my
client, my client couple with nokids are looking to do their
estate planning.
We're figuring out how tominimize taxes.
(23:16):
There are no heirs, so who arethey going to give the money to?
They don't have any nieces ornephews that are thinking about
charity.
Hey, new Hampshire CharitableFoundation, can you help them
devise some sort of a requestand tension plan of action, some
sort of a memorandum?
So I didn't feel in general thatestate planning attorneys were
too hard to convince.
I felt like the challenge wasI'm not sure that they knew
(23:37):
enough about the whole universeof options, and so I felt like I
was educating them about thingsbeyond a donor advice fund or
beyond some sort of elementalwork as it relates to charitable
giving.
And again, no hard feelings.
It was just like that's justnot their wheelhouse.
So I would say just like, helpme, help you, help me, help your
(23:59):
clients and make the bestdecisions for themselves.
So that was the easiestaudience for the trust in the
state's attorneys, but I stillfelt like they were limited in
what they knew and the best ofthem would say, hey, we know,
we're limited in what we know.
That's why we're bringing youto the table.
That's why we want you to talkto our clients is because we
know that we're missing some ofthis information that we know
(24:21):
could be beneficial.
Ron Greenwald (24:23):
I want you to give me your vision five years
from now.
Rick, the philanthropy guy asyou know, I am just enthralled
with it.
In the last year I have done adeep dive in my work because,
again in the last five years,we've had a tremendous rise in
(24:44):
appreciation of real estatecommercial, residential,
multifamily, everything.
So again, that 80 year old baby, soon to be 80 year old baby
boomer, who has highlyappreciated rental property.
What do we do with that?
And where do you?
Where can I take?
(25:04):
Where is the philanthropy guygoing?
Richard Peck (25:08):
I actually my grand vision is just to be that
valued resource.
If people started with me andjust said here's the problem I'm
bringing to you, I would beable to help them solve it,
either myself in my practice, orI'd be able to connect them to
the people that they need toconnect with.
In that way, I feel like I'mproviding a service, which is
I'm getting your questionanswered, I'm helping you solve
(25:31):
a problem for yourself.
Even though that sounds veryelemental, what I just said,
it's not true.
People can't always find theanswers to their questions.
They struggle to say who's theadvisor who's going to help me
get to the bottom of this orflesh this out.
So in that way, five years fromnow, 10 years from now, I just
(25:52):
want it to be easier for people.
Whether you're a donor or yourepresent a nonprofit or you
represent a professionaladvisory leg of the stool, you
know where to go and you knowhow to find what you need.
Ron Greenwald (26:08):
If a nonprofit does have a director of plan
giving, would that be someoneyou could support them and get
them out and help them teachthem what to say and what to do?
Instead of getting that $50check, maybe get that $1 million
charitable donation through agift of real estate.
Richard Peck (26:28):
Yeah, absolutely so.
Usually the director ofdevelopment, sometimes it's a
one-person show.
They don't even have a plangiving director, they're just
out there wearing all the hatsannual fund, major gifts, plan
gifts and so generally whatthey'll do is they'll see the
need, they'll see the immediacy,they'll go to their CEO or
their board and say, hey, weneed somebody to help us here.
(26:48):
So the CEO and the board andthe director of development will
talk and then they'll say thisis what we need, which includes
what you said education around.
How do we move from a $50 giftto a $1 million gift simply by
advertising that we take on $1million gifts through the form
of real estate or other types ofthings.
So it's an education process.
Ron Greenwald (27:09):
So I just have to close it up 30 years I have
this note 30 years of doingimprov.
How did that come about?
I just have to.
I'm fascinated.
Richard Peck (27:20):
So first of all I want to differentiate.
A lot of people can confuseimprovisational comedy on stage,
like ensemble work, withstandup comedy.
I don't do standup comedy.
I have never done standupcomedy like Jerry Seinfeld style
.
I go in and this is how itstarted.
I went to a show improv Boston1992.
I went and I watched this crazyshow where they did short form
(27:44):
improv, just like what you seeon a show called whose line is
it anyway?
And then they did long formimprov in the second half of the
show and I walked away and I gooh, I don't know what I just
saw here, but I want to do this.
I want to get up on stage anddo what they're doing.
This looks really fun.
There's no lines, they're justtaking suggestions from the
audience and doing these crazygames on the fly.
(28:06):
Like how do they do this?
This is like magic.
And so I took courses withimprov Boston.
I took a beginner course,intermediate course, I almost
took an advanced course, butthey didn't have enough people
signing up for it, so I ended upgoing and moving the same time.
I moved to Burlington, I taughta course on improv that all the
stuff I learned from improvBoston.
(28:27):
And then I ended up ultimatelyforming a troupe that's called
kamikaze comedy, and then we dida comedic not stand up, but Can
we see that on YouTube?
Ron Greenwald (28:40):
Is that on YouTube?
Richard Peck (28:40):
Actually, no, it's funny.
Somebody was asking me theother day do we have any stuff
on YouTube?
It's like no, we never reallyrecorded our stuff.
It was all live in person,generally not recorded, but it
was a load of fun and anyway, Ijust learned a lot about it.
It's fun I actually did somelast night in here in Charlotte
area but I love it because itreally gets your brain working
(29:05):
in different ways and it helpsyou to interact in ways that
only improv can teach you theskills of listening and trying
to be present and just helppeople be their best selves.
That's really what improv isall about, not about you.
It's about the group.
It's about what's happening onstage.
(29:25):
It's about sort of adding valueto the whole scene.
Ron Greenwald (29:29):
I'm sure you incorporate that into your work,
because listening, listening,listening is when you're in
front of a donor, it's all aboutlistening and getting him or
her to the promised land oftriumph so they can see what
their money could do and whythey're alive.
I'm always like let's do thiswhy you can enjoy seeing the
(29:49):
fruits of your labor ahead oftime.
So that's always my thing.
Richard Peck (29:55):
Absolutely.
Ron Greenwald (29:56):
Rick Peck, the philanthropy guycom.
The philanthropy guycom, andit's the philanthropy guy at
gmailcom Again, my listeningaudience.
I am urging you to think aboutthis.
You just have a highlyappreciated assets taxes, the
(30:23):
financial cliff coming down intwo years in terms of estate
planning, estate taxation.
Talk to Rick, get the questionsthat then Rick can provide you.
If I'm summarizing this right,rick can provide you the
questions to go to your wealthmanager with, to go to your
(30:44):
estate planning attorney with,so that the conversation is a
two-way love affair with thoseprofessional advisors rather
than them telling you what youshould be thinking.
Would that be a good summation?
Richard Peck (30:58):
That's a great summary.
I exactly I try to give peoplethe language they need, give
them the questions they need toask, or give them the answers
that they're looking for, justto make sure that we're doing
right by the client.
So, yeah, absolutely, it startswith me listening to what the
individual or the couple istrying to accomplish.
Ron Greenwald (31:17):
Rick Peck, thank you for being here today.
Good luck with your journey.
I'm here to encourage.
If you ever need my support inthis, I'm all in Because, again,
as everybody knows, I have 15years of stories of angry
beneficiaries and I'm going youknow what?
Just be happy you're gettinganything, because I think they
(31:38):
should have all given it tocharity.
Richard Peck (31:41):
I'm with you.
Ron Greenwald (31:42):
I'm with you so we're all on the same page and I
hope that you're I mean not, Ihope I know it's gonna thrive.
The demographics, the moneythat out there and what you can
do to help people is gonna befantastic.
So thank you for being herewith us today.
Richard Peck (32:01):
Well, thank you for having me, ron, and thank
you for being such a cheerleader.
I really do appreciate it.
Enjoy, thank you.
Ron Greenwald (32:08):
Thanks for tuning in to the Ron Greenwald show.
This is Ron Greenwald.
Today's guest was Rick Peckwith the Philanthropy Guy.
Again, I urge you to listen toRick's words and share those
with other people in your sphereof influence, because the
opportunity is now to reallymake a difference in the society
(32:29):
that we live in, and that's thebottom line.
Do what we can do now, andthank you for tuning in.
Popular Podcasts
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.