One of the Lodges I belong to has a good deal of fiscal security because some years ago a Brother left it a substantial sum in his will.
A large gift like that will make a big difference for the Lodge, forever. But even small bequests, held over time, can help to ensure that the work of a Lodge will continue as long as there are men to continue it.
Have you ever considered leaving something to your Lodge in your will?
If not, is there something your Lodge could do to make you feel good about doing so?
Has your Lodge ever had a conversation about this?
We have held estate planning seminars in our lodge to help educate, especially the young brothers in the lodge. What We found was that 90% of the members didn't have a proper will. Those that wanted to leave the lodge money didn't really have it in their will, nor did they know how to verbalize it. We've a trust set up for keeping the building up and functional. Part of the 501C3 associated with our GLs Foundation. That money is split between investments and Interest bearing assets. It can only be used for capital investments on the building by its trust. We've found more wiliness for people to donate based on those criteria. It being a 501c3 foundation. Businesses will donate for the tax write off.
Will planning is definitely not well understood. It's the perfect combination of boring (you get to talk to lawyers), scary (you have to think about being dead), and long term (where things are hard to know)
Your experience that so many didn't have a proper will is concerning. Based on that, perhaps Lodges offering a seminar as you mention would be extremely valuable for Masons. Proper estate planning certainly makes everything smoother when the time inevitably comes.
Your building trust also sounds like a superb plan, and something that people could feel confident in donating too.
Bequest planning is a big deal -- high risk -- high reward, for everybody involved
This is just me talking, but I personally from an investment standpoint wouldn't leave a bequest to a lodge to be spent year-to-year according to whatever the WM that year wanted to do
but I'd love to invest in the institution
What's your 20-year plan? Your 50-year plan? I'm all in on that.
You can't plan 20 years in advance with any fidelity. No buisness keeps a 20 year plan. You can have a 3 year plan with a 10 year forecast based on historical expenses, trending and variables
you don't need high fidelity in a long term plan, simply a goal, vision, direction, that sort of thing
time will go on, things will change - but it's always better to have a plan (and be required to change it) than to not have a plan. Our inability to make accurate 20 year plans shouldn't stop us from doing it, anymore than our inability to be perfect ashlars should stop us from trying
I agree, people wouldn't generally want to leave a Lodge money if they thought that it could be frittered away. In my Lodge inherited money is held separately from all the other funds. While there is flexibility in what the Lodge can spend the yearly gains on, the principal itself is held in such a way that it can never be spent.
In practice, most of the gains are added to the principal as well, in order to continue letting the fund grow because we are in a very stable place income wise now, but know that won't always be the case. Rainy days always come.
In a lodge that recently merged with another, I was the treasurer. I had taken over from an elderly brother that basically just was caretaking the money, not really trying to do anything with it.
There were four different sums of money kept in separate CDs, earning shit for interest. They were all bequests from different brothers, all earmarked for scholarships. The lodge hadn't given out a scholarship in years. The money was just sitting there gathering dust. I gathered up all of the account information, had the paperwork declaring me the custodian of the accounts, and went to each bank and closed all of them. I then took all of the money and put it into an investment fund through Ed Jones, and started making money for future scholarships. I had set a personal limit as far as how much we'd give out, and never drop below a certain level of funds, to make sure it continued to grow year after year. At first we were only giving out $2,000 scholarships, but as the fund continued to grow year after year, we're now able to give out $5,000 or more (up to the scholarship committee).
Giving money to a lodge, and especially one that has existing funds set aside for charity and good works, is never a bad thing, as long as the lodge is a good steward of the money they have been given.
Excellent. I did the same thing with the Scholarship funds with the Centralia York Rite when I became their Treasurer. Since the maturation date was pretty close on the CD's, I waited it out and made a good plan before cashing them out when they matured and were due for renewal. Other than that, my story's the same as yours.
We have a few Masonic organizations in our area who have their savings in CD's from the late 20th Century, and just renew them when they mature. If I tell them they can invest them better, most of the time I get the usual MYOB, and when I tell them the values of the accounts that my Lodges and the Centralia York Rite have, they say "Good for you," followed by the MYOB. And they might toss in, those funds can crash, there's a lot of risk. I've tried to offer "classes" of what they can do to invest the money better, which would involve inviting our Financial planner (who explains it much better than I can) to "teach" the class, but they think the Financial planners are like used-car salesmen and shysters who simply want our hard-earned funds. It's nuts. Especially when one of those Edward Jones advisors is a Brother in one of our Lodges!
We have held estate planning seminars in our lodge to help educate, especially the young brothers in the lodge. What We found was that 90% of the members didn't have a proper will. Those that wanted to leave the lodge money didn't really have it in their will, nor did they know how to verbalize it. We've a trust set up for keeping the building up and functional. Part of the 501C3 associated with our GLs Foundation. That money is split between investments and Interest bearing assets. It can only be used for capital investments on the building by its trust. We've found more wiliness for people to donate based on those criteria. It being a 501c3 foundation. Businesses will donate for the tax write off.
Will planning is definitely not well understood. It's the perfect combination of boring (you get to talk to lawyers), scary (you have to think about being dead), and long term (where things are hard to know)
Your experience that so many didn't have a proper will is concerning. Based on that, perhaps Lodges offering a seminar as you mention would be extremely valuable for Masons. Proper estate planning certainly makes everything smoother when the time inevitably comes.
Your building trust also sounds like a superb plan, and something that people could feel confident in donating too.
Thank you for sharing this information!
Brothers - have a long term plan for your lodge.
Bequest planning is a big deal -- high risk -- high reward, for everybody involved
This is just me talking, but I personally from an investment standpoint wouldn't leave a bequest to a lodge to be spent year-to-year according to whatever the WM that year wanted to do
but I'd love to invest in the institution
What's your 20-year plan? Your 50-year plan? I'm all in on that.
You can't plan 20 years in advance with any fidelity. No buisness keeps a 20 year plan. You can have a 3 year plan with a 10 year forecast based on historical expenses, trending and variables
you don't need high fidelity in a long term plan, simply a goal, vision, direction, that sort of thing
time will go on, things will change - but it's always better to have a plan (and be required to change it) than to not have a plan. Our inability to make accurate 20 year plans shouldn't stop us from doing it, anymore than our inability to be perfect ashlars should stop us from trying
I agree, people wouldn't generally want to leave a Lodge money if they thought that it could be frittered away. In my Lodge inherited money is held separately from all the other funds. While there is flexibility in what the Lodge can spend the yearly gains on, the principal itself is held in such a way that it can never be spent.
In practice, most of the gains are added to the principal as well, in order to continue letting the fund grow because we are in a very stable place income wise now, but know that won't always be the case. Rainy days always come.
In a lodge that recently merged with another, I was the treasurer. I had taken over from an elderly brother that basically just was caretaking the money, not really trying to do anything with it.
There were four different sums of money kept in separate CDs, earning shit for interest. They were all bequests from different brothers, all earmarked for scholarships. The lodge hadn't given out a scholarship in years. The money was just sitting there gathering dust. I gathered up all of the account information, had the paperwork declaring me the custodian of the accounts, and went to each bank and closed all of them. I then took all of the money and put it into an investment fund through Ed Jones, and started making money for future scholarships. I had set a personal limit as far as how much we'd give out, and never drop below a certain level of funds, to make sure it continued to grow year after year. At first we were only giving out $2,000 scholarships, but as the fund continued to grow year after year, we're now able to give out $5,000 or more (up to the scholarship committee).
Giving money to a lodge, and especially one that has existing funds set aside for charity and good works, is never a bad thing, as long as the lodge is a good steward of the money they have been given.
Excellent. I did the same thing with the Scholarship funds with the Centralia York Rite when I became their Treasurer. Since the maturation date was pretty close on the CD's, I waited it out and made a good plan before cashing them out when they matured and were due for renewal. Other than that, my story's the same as yours.
We have a few Masonic organizations in our area who have their savings in CD's from the late 20th Century, and just renew them when they mature. If I tell them they can invest them better, most of the time I get the usual MYOB, and when I tell them the values of the accounts that my Lodges and the Centralia York Rite have, they say "Good for you," followed by the MYOB. And they might toss in, those funds can crash, there's a lot of risk. I've tried to offer "classes" of what they can do to invest the money better, which would involve inviting our Financial planner (who explains it much better than I can) to "teach" the class, but they think the Financial planners are like used-car salesmen and shysters who simply want our hard-earned funds. It's nuts. Especially when one of those Edward Jones advisors is a Brother in one of our Lodges!