After her talk on estate planning and charitable giving, Anita Siegel, center, spoke with Eleanor Rubin, left, a board member of the Jewish Community Endowment Foundation, which hosted the event, and Jessica Mehlman, Central federation assistant director of financial resource development.
Photo by Elaine Durbach
July 17, 2008
Emphasizing that the desire to do good should come first, a trust and estate counselor outlined various ways individuals can help their favorite cause and/or their heirs while cutting their tax liability.
Anita Siegel, a member of the Jewish Federation of Central New Jersey’s Jewish Community Foundation Endowment, spoke at an endowment-sponsored event attended by about 30 people in Scotch Plains on July 9.
Siegel, her bright, quick delivery belying the complexity of her subject matter, did not suggest that the charitable cause of choice might be the endowment — though among those present and asking questions were some of its stalwart supporters.
Instead, she focused on the different options people might consider in pursuit of their own goals, from the limits on charitable deductions to trusts of various kinds, to comparable income tax and estate tax issues.
She urged those present to take note of changes in NJ law relating to estate taxes, and an increase that is due to kick in next year.
“If you haven’t changed your will since 2002, you really need to look at it again,” she said.
Attorney Anita Siegel told an audience at the Central federation that well-planned charitable giving can involve “gifts” from “Uncle Sam.”
Federation past president Eleanor Rubin, a board member of the endowment and cochair of its Ness allocations committee, introduced Siegel.
“She’s brilliant,” Rubin said of Siegel afterward. “She took what could be very dry and confusing information and made it interesting to listen to. We should be having more events of this kind. There were people for whom this subject was of particular interest, who might not come to federation for anything else.”
Siegel, a former mathematics teacher at Scotch Plains-Fanwood High School, received her law degree and master’s in taxation from New York University School of Law in 1980 and 1983, respectively.
Two years ago she became a founding partner of the firm Siegel and Bergman, LLC. She is a frequent lecturer and author on various estate planning, estate administration, and tax issues.
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