3 Gift Giving Mistakes to Avoid

By Adriane Berg

Do you have the financial foresight to give a meaningful gift and legacy investment to your family, charity or institution, but worry it may be ineffectively managed or misused?

Then, you are not alone.

Three mistakes can diminish the power of your gift. Fortunately, there is a solution to avoid these mistakes.

#1—Avoid Gifts That Do Not Fight Inflation

Gifts are usually given to save for a significant life event, like college, purchasing a first home or starting a business. Or, to grow well established institutional programs or facilities.

For the past 30 years the inflation rate has put so many of life's events out of reach, or at least made it more challenging to reach those goals.

To meet these challenges, your gift should keep up with inflation and be a steady store of wealth, not pegged to the dollar.

Your gift is precious, so think of precious metals – gold and silver.

Until recently, there was no efficient way to gift physical precious metals. But, that's all changed. Asset Strategies International offers ASI Precious Metals Direct (ASIPMD), the perfect online platform to gift precious metals and beat the inflation issue.

It takes under 10 minutes to set up a relationship from any smart phone, computer or tablet. You select the gift amount to be used to purchase gold or silver.

#2– Avoid Making the Gift Outright

It may feel good to hand over a check or cash, but the gift sometimes evaporates in no time at all – and perhaps not for the intended or best use.

ASIPMD offers three means to avoid this, leaving you in control.

1. Uniform Transfers to Minors Act (UTMA): The recipient receives the gift automatically upon reaching the age of 18 or 21, depending on the state in which he or she resides. The gift is irrevocable, but not available to the child until they come of age.
2. In trust with a legal document and its own EIN number. The terms can state when and how the recipient receives the gift.
3. Under an 'in trust for' account with no legal document, the money is legally the child's when the account is opened, but it is managed by you.

#3– Avoid Making Sporadic Lump Sum Gifts

There is more wealth building power in making regular gifts over time than giving one big check and hoping it's invested well.

ASIPMD offers a Wealth Accumulation Plan (WAP), to put your gifting on an automatic and systematic schedule so you can dollar cost average into precious metals for the best price.

With WAP, you designate the sum to be gifted monthly. Your gift buys fractional ounces of gold or silver. It's not necessary to purchase full ounces.

The Wealth Accumulation Plan makes it easy for tax planning as well. You can designate a monthly gift equal to 1/12 of the Federal Annual Gift Tax Exclusion. Currently, gifts up to $14,000 a year ($28,000 per couple) per beneficiary are tax free.

Emotion loses money. Discipline grows and protects wealth.

We have other gifting strategies to share with you – whether gifting to others or to yourself. Call us at 877-340-0790 or send an email to discuss how we help you Keep What's Yours!

P.S. With ASIPMD online, many children, even very young ones, are tech savvy. Showing them their gift online is a good way to begin teaching them about money management and let them watch their intergenerational wealth grow.

If you prefer not to reveal your gift, ASIPMD works for you as well. You can limit access to your statement, and your ASIPMD funds pass to the recipient with no probate. Your gift need not be disclosed in any testamentary document.

Adriane Berg is the author of "Gifting to People You Love," "The Totally Awesome Business Book for Kids and Their Families," and "The Totally Awesome Money Book for Kids and Their Families," a New York Times Age Beat Fellow, and CEO of Generation Bold, helping business reach the boomer and mature markets. Adriane is a consultant to Asset Strategies International.