A legacy that lasts.

A donor-advised fund (DAF) hosted in Atlanta offers immediate IRS §170 charitable deductions, no annual payout mandate, and simplified administration. A private foundation gives control over grant timing and board composition yet files separate Form 990-PF and pays 1.39% excise tax under IRC §4940. We map each structure against family governance goals and concentrated-stock positions. Observations are shared; decisions stay yours.

Families often retain incidents of ownership—such as the right to change beneficiaries or borrow against the policy—which pulls the death benefit back into the taxable estate under IRC §2042. We coordinate the ILIT drafting timeline so the trust, not you, applies for and owns the policy from inception, avoiding three-year look-back exposure. Observations are shared; decisions stay yours.

The process typically starts with a review of what's currently in place — wills, trusts, beneficiary designations, powers of attorney — compared against what actually happens to each asset today if nothing changes. 755 Financial then coordinates with the family's estate attorney to draft or update documents, and critically, funds them: retitling accounts, updating beneficiary designations, and confirming trust ownership actually matches what the documents say, since an unfunded trust provides none of the protection the paperwork implies. The team reviews the full structure periodically as tax law, family circumstances, or asset values change, rather than treating the signing as the finish line.

Estate planning coordination is typically part of a broader wealth management or family office engagement rather than a standalone flat fee, since the value is in ongoing coordination between the estate attorney, the tax preparer, and the investment accounts — not a single document-drafting event. Separate attorney fees for drafting wills, trusts, and powers of attorney are billed by the estate counsel directly and vary by document complexity. The clearest way to understand the full cost picture — coordination fee plus attorney fees plus any trust administration costs — is a first conversation where the actual document and coordination needs are scoped.

Yes — a will or trust that isn't coordinated with beneficiary designations, account titling, and the tax return can fail silently, since beneficiary designations on retirement accounts and life insurance override what a will says, and few clients realize the two need to match. 755 Financial works directly with the family's estate attorney (or refers to one when needed) so trust funding, gifting strategy, and beneficiary alignment happen as a single coordinated process rather than three separate professionals each assuming someone else handled it. For Cherokee County families with real estate, a business, or multiple accounts, that coordination gap is where estate plans most often fail in practice, not in the drafting.