The Community Foundation of Southwest Louisiana has a mission: “Connecting people who care with causes that matter.”

President and CEO Sara Judson said one way to support that goal is to identify financial vehicles for philanthropy, vehicles that connect people with favorite charitable organizations or institutions and simultaneously reduce their taxes.

As part of that mission, the foundation will host a continuing education seminar from 8 a.m. to noon Sept. 27 at L’Auberge Casino Resort. Each year, the seminar is offered to lawyers, financial advisors and CPAs to meet their yearly professional development requirements.

They earn professional development credits  — CLEs for lawyers and CPEs for CPAs — and stay up to date on current professional knowledge and strategies.

This effort to bolster the skill sets of local professionals ultimately nurtures philanthropy in Southwest Louisiana, especially when it comes to major philanthropic gift planning.

“When we can provide this cutting-edge information to professional advisors that they can share with people who have causes that matter to them, it helps grow that support.”

Each year, the Community Foundation brings in a knowledgeable and engaging speaker based on peer recommendation.

“The Community Foundation, a number of years ago, we decided that it would be really valuable for our professional advisors in the region to hear from a national expert related to tax-smart strategies,” Judson said. “The more they know about current opportunities for charitable giving, the more they can share with their clients.”

This year the keynote speaker is Carlo Laurore, CFP, CHFC, CLU, RICP, AEP, CFRE CAP, who will speak on the topic “leveraging charitable planning trends and tactics to create sustainable community impact.”

Laurore is the senior vice president of development for Scouting America and the executive director of the National Boy Scouts of America Foundation. He has an extensive professional background that spans commercial banking, gift planning, endowment management consultation and restricted funds support.

In his current role, he leverages his experience to inform major gift and endowment strategies.

“The goal is to connect people back to the organization and allow them to express their philanthropy, whether that be their time or their dollar,” he said.

He transitioned into the philanthropic sector of the financial services industry after gaining experience serving on a nonprofit board and doing “a lot of soul searching” in the fallout of the 2008 financial crisis.

“I really felt like it provided me an opportunity to leverage my skill sets and better society as a whole,” he said. “When things get tight, in terms of economies, those local organizations really do serve a purpose in our communities.

“I really felt the transformational impact of focusing my skill sets in that area.”

He considers himself a “subject matter expert” for both financial advisors and donors, guiding them through the process of philanthropic gifting.

“It’s created this symbiotic relationship where ultimately, the donor gets that greatest sense of satisfaction based on having a financial plan that includes their desires to make a difference in the world.”

Judson said informed financial professionals are valuable for the Community Foundation. The Just Imagine SWLA 50-year Resilience Plan — a master plan that aims to boost the region’s housing, infrastructure, economy and culture — can be facilitated with sustainable funding provided to local organizations through major gifts and endowments.

“That is another way that we are supporting the next 50 years of Southwest Louisiana, is figuring out what tools clients can share with their clients so that they can support causes they care about in a sustainable way.”

Continuing  education

Laurore said seminars like the Continuing Education Seminar aim to keep financial professionals up to speed on their annual continued education, a step they must all take to keep their certifications valid, in an enjoyable way.

“Instead of just going online and checking off a couple of boxes, it allows for you to be around colleagues similar to yourself in more of an enriched conversation.”

Blake Brignac, a certified financial planner with Woods Brignac Wealth Management of Raymond James, has gone to the seminar four years in a row. He looks forward to going every year because the event allows local financial professionals and lawyers to come together “mingle” and learn best practices.

“I’m always excited to see other folks in the industry, and to get together with them to see what they’ve been doing in their practices,” he said. “It’s been a year since we got together. What’s new? What’s different? Are there some new tools in the toolbox? How can we better ourselves to serve our clients in a better capacity?”

He said it is particularly important to keep up with industry changes concerning charitable giving, especially “when utilizing donor-advised funds.”

Regular education allows for a more well-rounded and skilled approach, Laurore said.

“Going there and learning specific nuances in the charitable gift planning area, it allows you to be that much better for your clients because you are now stretching your skill set and your education beyond what you may touch on a regular basis.”

With his keynote address, he wants to motivate the “best to get even better” about a subject that is not always a main focus, like charitable giving. He aims to make dense information relatable, practical and fun, and arm participants with skills that can be immediately applied to their client consultations.

He also plans to present case study information from his decades of experience, and present data with practical applications. The personal real-life situations will tune participants into the cues and thought processes to stay ahead of the game for clients.

Through continued education, local professionals can ensure local clients are assured they’re in safe hands.

“All they know is that they look at you as the expert, and how do you allow yourself to be more of an expert for them,” he said. “They don’t know that you have only worked on one or two of these in your life. All they know is that they trust you.

“This allows for that trust to be extended further and further as that education launches higher and higher.”

Constant changing tides

The other critical part of the seminar is to prepare professionals for potential changes in the financial industry. Laurore said taxes and policies are likely to change, no matter what happens at the voting booths in November.

“Sometimes planning accordingly is understanding what’s going to change, and trying to make sure that if there is something I can do today to better position myself or my client for tomorrow, then I should do that.”

Brignac echoed this, stating there is a perpetual moving target for financial professionals.

“They keep moving the field goalpost on us,” he said. “With tax changes, with standard deduction limits, with different trends in the industry, it is always good to know what’s new, what’s most efficient, what other people are doing in their practices to accomplish the goal for the client, whether that be charitable giving or to receive a tax deduction.”

Philanthropy is for everyone

“There is a place and a stake for everyone inside the charitable giving process.”

This is a notion that Laurore wants everyone to understand, finance professional or not. His big goal is to make wealth management, gift planning and endowment fund management knowledge more accessible. He spoke of the theoretical 70-year-old grandmother with a 401k from an old job, who can receive tax advantages with just a $1000 donation.

“What if I told you there was a pathway where it could actually save her $200 or $300 a year?”

With this in mind, there is a right way to do it, he said.

“The truth is that any dollar that we don’t optimize, we don’t minimize the taxes, we are actually being philanthropic to the government,” he explained. “There is nothing wrong with being philanthropic to the government, the government does a lot of amazing things, but I don’t know that many people that have the government as their top philanthropy.”

Well-trained financial professionals can help donors answer the question: “How do I allow my desire for making a difference in the world align with the way that my dollars flow?”

Brignac said charitable giving is a true gift from the heart. A gift that can be fiscally beneficial is approached appropriately.

“You’re not going to convince somebody to be charitably inclined if they don’t want to give already,” he said. “This is just a tax-efficient way to accomplish that goal. … You can accomplish your goal of gifting to the charity of your choice while receiving a deduction on your taxes and maintaining control of those assets all at the same time.”

Laurore noted that the organizations that benefit from endowments and gift planning are vital harbingers of good works for communities and the “foundation of ensuring that work can continue to happen.”

“We all care about that better place and space, to the extent that we want to see the world better tomorrow than it is today, then we care about those organizations growing their endowment and sustaining themselves over time.”

He said that even if an individual cannot personally make the gift, spreading the knowledge of how to maintain those foundations is an impactful way to help.