Meeting Recap September 8

President Patti opened the meeting at 12:16 and there were 27 out of 57 members present. Lee Padgitt provided the “thought for the day” which was followed by the Pledge of Allegiance. Guests of Bob Baker were Harry Grace and his daughter Emmy.  John Muno, the WPD Superintendent of Recreation represented the Winnetka Park District.  Patti announced that Fred Schwimmer was home from the hospital and happy to hear from any of us. Unfortunately, he will have to return for some surgical follow-up. Liz Taylor told us of the forthcoming Wine Walk centered at Elm and Lincoln on Saturday, October 1. And Tom Nash told us of a forthcoming fund-raising dinner at Misericordia.

 

Brooke Peppy handled the “dig and grin” with a short tale that received great applause. “Happy Bucks” followed with Robert Madirossian noting the ongoing success of the Cubs and the solid acceptance of his Family Service operations’ new name, Counseling Center of the North Shore..

 

Rich Lalley chipped in some Happy Bucks because of the growing success of Operation Warm in raising ever more funds for kids coats. He also told us of the ongoing top flight reputation of the RI Foundation. Last year our national foundation received a 97/100 rating from”Charity Newsletter” and this year the rating was 100/100!

 

David Birkenstein led off the speaker’s portion of the meeting by saying the scheduled speaker had let him know that morning that they were unavailable. So he told us we were to hear from Emmy Grace about her pro-bono work in Guatemala and David would share information on estate planning.

 

Emmy Grace talked for about ten minutes about working in Guatemala for a NGO. She deals with and promotes local specialty coffee bean growers’ products. High quality coffee beans are the number 2 export just behind oil for that country.

 

David Birkenstein then spoke for about 20 minutes about estate planning noting there are many tax traps and pitfalls if not done properly. He stressed that planning ahead must involve the heirs – and especially children. Also he noted that assets in a living trust will avoid probate court -- and if properly structured the trust can avoid creditors.

 

He gave a variety of examples where careful planning could gave important plusses. For example: putting major assets, like a house, in “joint tenancy” may not be good from a tax view so an attorney needs to be consulted.

 

The meeting closed at 1:30