Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Planned Giving Overview, Alternative Investments for Endowments, and Family Dynamics

9:30 a.m. – 2:00 p.m.

Location:  Roman Catholic Diocese of Charlotte, 1123 S. Church Street, Charlotte, NC 28203-4003    

Cost 

Leave-A-Legacy & NC Planned Giving Council Members: $30

First Time Guests: $35

Non-Members $60

Audience:  Financial Professionals, Estate Planning Lawyers, Non-profit Organizations and Board Members

Agenda

9:30      Registration & Networking

10:00    Morning Session

Noon     Lunch

1:00      Afternoon Session

Morning Session

Family Dynamics with Keith Whitaker

Over the past decades, wealth advisors have developed a deeper understanding of the host of emotional responses that accompany wealth events – whether the event in question is a business sale, inheritance, trust distribution, or other financial transition.

These wealth events can have powerful effects on individuals’ notions of identity, purpose, and family connection. Yet most of the time family leaders focus their energies on the financial implications of liquidity – without managing the personal dimensions and dynamics that can have far more powerful effects on the family’s well being.

In this program, Dr. Keith Whitaker, who specializes in communication, relationships, and governance for financial families, will provide insights into the management of both sudden and expected wealth events.

Topics for discussion include:

• Common challenges and stresses that individuals and families face during liquidity events
• Ground rules, structures and other processes that can help family members
• Family education and therapeutic strategies that can help – and when to use them
• Assessment strategies and tactics, with a view towards family trust and cohesion

Financial and philanthropic leaders and advisors who are preparing family members to productively handle future inflows of wealth will not want to miss this thought-provoking and practical program.

Alternative Investments for Endowments with Judy Kearns and Alan Lenahan

A description of the usefulness of alternative investments to round out he appropriately diversified investment portfolio for endowments.  Included will be discussion of hedge funds, commodities, real estate, venture capital and private capital and other alternative strategies.

Objectives:

Recognition of the value of portfolio diversification

Appreciation of the usefulness of alternative strategies

Understanding of the appropriate use of alternatives.

Afternoon Session

Planned Giving Overview with Bart Landess 

This program will concentrate on how donors evaluate their planned gifts, including the capacity of the organization to manage the money well and accomplish the donor’s objectives. 

Objectives:

Understanding donor’s thinking about planned giving

Recognizing opportunities to increase planned giving

Learning cultivation techniques for planned giving donors

About the Presenters:

Keith Whitaker, Research Fellow, Center on Wealth and Philanthropy, Boston College

Keith earned his BA in classics and philosophy and an MA in classics from Boston University, and his PhD in Social Thought from the University of Chicago. He also holds a certificate in National Security Studies from the University of Kiel, Germany, and the Certified Trust and Financial Advisor designation from the American Bankers Association.

Dr. Whitaker has taught for many years in Boston College's Philosophy Department and Boston University's Writing Program. In addition, he has worked as an assistant to the chiefs of staff of Boston University Presidents John Silber and Jon Westling. For years, Dr. Whitaker served as Director and President of the Morton Foundation, a privately operating foundation devoted to education.

Among other publications Dr. Whitaker has written "A Journey into Platonic Politics: Plato’s Laws" (University Press of America, 2004) and "Plato’s Parmenides" (Focus Press, 1996). He has edited over twenty volumes of classical Greek, Latin, and German texts in translation, and he has written many papers on philosophy, politics, and literature for such periodicals as Partisan Review, Academic Questions, Journal of Education, The American Spectator, and National Review Online. Currently he is writing, with Paul Schervish, a book on religious traditions and philanthropic decision-making.

Dr. Whitaker also works as a Senior Vice President and Director of Family Dynamics for Calibre , a multi-family office company with $18 billion under management.

Judy L. Kerns, Senior Vice President - Investments & Administration, Foundation For The Carolinas

Judy Kerns is responsible for the Foundation’s financial investments and human resources. In this capacity she works with the Foundation’s investment managers, serves as staff liaison to the Investment Committee, oversees the development of financial models and supervises human resources.

Judy has served the Foundation for more than 30 years. Foundation For The Carolinas is a publicly-supported community foundation with assets in excess of $800 million. 

Judy has 35 years of experience in accounting, finance and nonprofit administration. She has served on the Executive Committee of FAOG, a national network of financial officers and is a past member of the Standards Action Team, a national committee that compiled the national standards for community foundations.

Judy holds an M.B.A. from Queens University of Charlotte.

Bart Landess, Senior Vice President - Development & Planned Giving
Foundation For The Carolinas

Foundation For The Carolinas is a community foundation with $803 million in charitable assets serving 13 counties in North and South Carolina.  Bart joined the Foundation in 2000 after serving Davidson College for nine years, first as Vice President of Planned Giving and Major Gifts and then as General Counsel and Executive Assistant to the President.  During his tenure at Davidson, Bart was a part of a $162 million capital campaign and then assisted with the management of the college’s endowment as General Counsel.  Prior to that, he was in private law practice at Smith Helms Mulliss & Moore in Charlotte, NC. 

Bart has served as a Board member and volunteer for several nonprofit organizations including the Community Food Rescue (as Chair), the Davidson Housing Coalition (as a member of the Task Force working on the award-winning Bungalows project), First Presbyterian Church (as a Deacon and Elder), the Ada Jenkins Center (as a member of the Executive Committee) and North Carolina Outward Bound School (as a member of the Charlotte Advisory Board).  Most recently, he was the Chair of the Steering Committee of Housing Charlotte 2007, an exploration of affordable housing issues in the Charlotte region.

He has also been a member of several national and local organizations regarding fundraising and planned giving including the Steering Committee of Leave a Legacy–Charlotte, the North Carolina Planned Giving Council, Charlotte Chapter of the Association of Fundraising Professionals, and the American Bar Association Real Property, Probate and Trust Law Section.

Bart was named the 2007 Outstanding Fundraising Professional by the Charlotte Chapter of the Association of Fundraising Professionals. He holds a B.A. from Davidson College and a J.D. from the University of Virginia.