Give in These Uncertain Times? Absolutely!

The following guest column by Gulf Coast President|CEO Mark Pritchett appeared in the November 18 edition of SRQ Daily:

Holiday creep. The ever-earlier commercial start to the year-end holiday season. This year seemed to set a new record when I ran a gauntlet of twinkling trees in the entrance to a home-improvement store more than a week before Halloween.

But at least one important year-end activity could actually benefit from an ever-earlier start: your charitable-gift planning. For a variety of reasons—mostly all good—many people wait until the 12th month (and sometimes even its 11th hour) to finalize their year-end donations. That can lead to rushed decisions amid the holiday bustle and missed opportunities when it comes to tax planning. Next year, think about the period between Halloween and Thanksgiving to focus on your charitable gifts within the context of your overall year-end planning.

Of course, this year the still-uncertain fate of pending tax-reform legislation might have left you even more unsure about when and how much to give. But it shouldn’t stop you. December 31 will be here soon, so let’s concentrate on what we do know.

Read the rest of Mark's column in SRQ Daily...