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Marc Luber: Hey everyone – welcome to JD CareersOutThere – where we get you career
advice from fellow lawyers and non-practicing lawyers – to help you find success and happiness
in your career. I’m ML – and today we’re exploring careers in planned giving. We’re
talking to Steve Rosenblum, the Director of Planned Gifts at the world class St. Louis
Zoo. Here’s a little look at our discussion where he explains his role:
Steve Rosenblum: So, as Director of Planned Gifts, I work with folks who want to leave
something to the Saint Louis Zoo through a will, a trust, gift of land, gift of art,
anything sort of out of the ordinary. It’s just not your typical gift. And we call it
“planned gift” because it takes a little planning. So usually with some sort of financial
planner, wealth advisor, attorney, something like that.
Luber: And are most of these gifts done while the people are still alive or they’re leaving
this for after they are gone? How does that work?
Steve Rosenblum: So, it sort of runs the gamut. We’ve got folks who do some immediate gifts.
And not in every planned giving office, but in most they count some of the stock gifts.
So, the more complex stock gifts usually falls into my lap and those are typically almost
always lifetime gifts. But then it also sort of spans where there might be what are called
split income gifts where someone would make a gift during lifetime, receive benefits back
like an annuity each year and then after death, the remainder comes to the Zoo, and those
are called split interest gifts because part of it is during life, part of it comes after
death. And then there’s typical – the more typical sort of the bread and butter
of any planned giving program are pretty straightforward bequests - so wills and trusts that become
realized as we call it when the donor passes away, so. So the majority of them are through
death gifts as we call it.
Luber: Wow. Interesting. So, are you going out and finding the people or the estates
to leave these gifts? Are you – I assume you’re not cold calling saying “Hey, it’s
Steve at the Zoo” you know, how does that–
Steve Rosenblum: Exactly. So, in some cases, there’s a little of that but a lot of development,
a lot of fundraising is getting out there, meeting folks, talking to folks and trying
to get them. Somebody has already bought into your mission to give an annual gift or to
give sort of a major gift or a gift for a campaign. My job is a little different and
I like that…….
Luber: Alright – you can watch the full interview with Steve on planned giving careers
at JD-CareersOutThere.com. Steve’s got great advice on what this path is like, where the
work is, why it’s rewarding, what it takes to succeed, how your JD applies, and specifically
how to network your way in. You can use the shortcut JDCOT.com to go there now. If you’re
already at the site, you can scroll down to the full version – be sure to become a MEMBER
so you can watch the full interview and get access to lots more exclusive content filled
with great advice. Thanks again for watching everyone – I’m Marc Luber and look forward
to seeing you again soon. Take care.