Each month we spotlight members of the Community Foundation of Broward’s Professional Advisors Council.
The PAC includes attorneys, CPAs and financial planners who help their clients achieve their charitable goals by collaborating with the Community Foundation. Council members have referred clients who establish charitable funds at the Foundation or who include the Foundation in their estate plans.
This month’s Q&A features PAC Member Scott Bakal, Esq.
Scott J. Bakal, of Greenberg Traurig, develops tax-planning strategies for closely held family businesses, partnerships, and publicly held corporations with significant domestic and international operations. Scott works closely with clients to develop elegant, tax-sensitive approaches to their complex business transactions, financial situations, estate planning matters, and real estate investments, as well as to pursue tax efficiency throughout their operations.
Professional & Philanthropy
Q.What inspired you to enter your field?
My father was a CPA who encouraged me to go into tax law. While I started my career as a corporate tax attorney, I found that I preferred working with families and closely held businesses to solve their tax problems rather than large corporations. Often times, conversations will begin with tax considerations, but other concerns end up driving the ultimate planning.
Q.What areas of planning do you focus on?
Being located in South Florida, a significant portion of my clients have international tax planning issues. This can include planning for non-U.S. residents buying real estate or making investments in the U.S., pre-immigration planning for non-U.S. residents, structuring trusts for non-U.S. family members who will be receiving gifts from U.S. persons, and planning for U.S. persons making investments outside of the U.S.
Q.What do you enjoy most about helping clients with long-term or legacy planning?
Most of my clients have unique situations, due to the international context or the number of U.S. business entities. Often, the ideal solution may not be readily apparent at first glance and I enjoy helping clients find out of the box solutions to non-traditional situations.
Q.How do you approach conversations around charitable giving?
Many of my clients are already involved actively serving on the boards of one or more charities. For those clients who don't raise it with me directly, I will sometimes say, "I know that you are involved in X. Would you like to provide for them in your documents?" If they express an interest, I will also suggest that lifetime gifts are much more tax efficient than testamentary bequests, but often, people want to wait until they pass away to make a large gift.
Q.Why is philanthropy important in a strong estate or financial plan?
When specifying charitable beneficiaries, my clients are saying that these are the causes that we believe in, and we hope that you (our children) continue to support our values. Also, for some clients, allowing their children to jointly control a pool of charitable assets creates an opportunity for their children to all come together at regular intervals to discuss how to make decisions as a family.
Q.Are there causes or community issues that are especially meaningful to you?
I am a board member of the Jewish Federation of Broward County, and also support a number of Israeli related causes both in the United States and also directly in Israel. Also, my wife and I support the United Way of Miami-Dade as part of our commitment to help address the significant levels of income disparity that exist in our community.
Q.What drew you to engage with the Community Foundation of Broward?
When we moved here four years ago from Chicago, I was looking for community organizations to become involved with on a professional level. After I met with Mark Kotler, who was then Senior Director of Philanthropic Services at the Community Foundation, Mark invited me to attend the Foundation’s Professional Advisors Council (PAC) meetings. Within a short period of time, several of my clients had charitable goals that the Community Foundation of Broward was able to help solve.
Q.How has partnering with Community Foundation of Broward benefited your clients?
Let me give you one example. I have one client who is strongly concerned about food insecurity in South Florida. He has an extremely successful business and after providing for all of his family members and certain friends, he will still be leaving 90 percent of his estate to charity. One quarter of his donations are earmarked for combating food insecurity issues in South Florida. He did not want to hire a staff to implement his charitable goals, but also did not want to leave his food insecurity related donations to a single charity that might not provide adequate oversight over how the funds are being spent. He named the Community Foundation of Broward as one of the beneficiaries of his estate so that the Community Foundation can decide which food security charities to fund, based on the needs of the Broward community after he passes away and the best organizations at the time of his passing to accomplish those goals.
Q.What trends do you see emerging in charitable giving or estate planning?
Continuing to see an increased focus on donor-advised funds rather than private foundations. It is hard to justify the added cost and administrative requirements to most families, unless they absolutely need to have 100 percent control of their charitable funds. Also, I have recently helped families to modify some irrevocable, un-amendable trusts to add for the possibility of giving assets from those irrevocable trusts.
Q.What advice would you offer advisors looking to include charitable planning in their practice?
Educate yourself about the possible classes of charitable recipients for clients who might be charitably inclined, so that when a client says,“I have an interest in Y,” you can respond and say, “I know of Z organization who can help you with that.”
Personal & Fun
Q.What are of Broward/South Florida do you call home?
Las Olas Isles
Q.What’s something people might be surprised to learn about you?
I started playing tennis late in life and will never get further than being an advanced beginner, but I love playing it!
Q.How do you like to spend your time outside of work?
Outside of work, most of my time is spent walking my dog (along with my wife) around the Las Olas Isles. She gives us a lot of exercise!
Q.What is a favorite Broward restaurant, coffee spot, or local gem?
For food, the purple dumplings at Nour Thai Kitchen in Oakland Park. For a local gem, simply walking along Las Olas Isles, towards downtown or towards the beach. Each time we are reminded of how lucky we are to live here.
Q.What is a book, podcast, or resource that’s inspired you recently?
1929, by Andrew Ross Sorkin. Not so much for the history of the era, but as a reminder that there is still some financial crisis to come in my life, and we likely have no idea as of yet what it will be.
Q.What is one word colleagues would use to describe you?
Instructive. One of my clients recently asked if I lectured on certain trust planning techniques. I enjoy taking complex tax concepts and breaking them down into simple concepts so that my clients can understand them.
Q.A favorite quote or guiding motto:
One of my dad's favorite pieces of advice was that when structuring matters for clients, assume that any advice you give or technique you use will be written up in the New York Times or Wall Street Journal. If what you are doing or advising is going to make you uncomfortable if it were up in the newspapers, you shouldn't be doing it.
More about the PAC
Our PAC is an elite group of tax and estate attorneys, CPAs and financial advisors who collaborate with the Community Foundation to achieve their clients’ charitable goals. Council members have referred clients who establish charitable funds at the Foundation or who include the Foundation in their estate plans. Working together, we help their clients to make a lasting impact through grantmaking support from their charitable funds at the Community Foundation. PAC members are invited to networking opportunities, continuing education sessions and special Community Foundation events.
LEARN MORE
Contact the Community Foundation of Broward at info@cfbroward.org or 954-761-9503.
