Solutions for giving: A professional adviser and her client share their story

Financial adviser and chartered accountant, Tania Tonkin, from dmca advisory has been helping clients achieve optimal outcomes with their money for decades.

Established more than 35 years ago, dmca is now helping third and fourth-generation clients, achieve their financial, and increasingly, their philanthropic, goals.

“We’re seeing the intergenerational wealth transfer gathering pace and I’m finding that we’re having the conversation about philanthropic giving with a lot of our clients and there is genuine interest in it,” Tania says.

Tania recently connected one of her clients, Colin Causby, with the team at Foundation SA who helped establish the Colin and Kathryn Causby Fund.

The Fund enables Colin and Kathryn to achieve their philanthropic goals, which include supporting cancer and wildlife charities and creating opportunities for young people – all causes dear to their hearts – for years to come.

The benefits of strategic giving

Tania describes the process of setting up a fund at Foundation SA as “very easy”.

“It’s great to have an organisation that’s SA-based with people on the ground here,” she says.

“Foundation SA knows how to locate the smaller charities that are doing great work, and this really appeals to clients who want to achieve as much impact as possible.

“Not having to worry about the administrative responsibilities of giving, while at the same time enjoying all the benefits that would come with having a charitable trust or foundation of their own, is another benefit,” Tania continues.

Receiving an immediate tax deduction while having the ability to take the time to decide which causes to support, is another benefit of using a community foundation to manage the giving process.

“When you set up your sub-fund, there are options to make your initial lump sum donation 100 per cent deductible upfront or you can choose to spread it over five years,” Tania explains.

“For many clients, receiving that tax deduction while living can be beneficial, particularly if they have large investment portfolios.”

Building a lasting legacy

Like many other self-made business success stories, Colin Causby’s entrepreneurial streak started while he was young. Hailing from a working-class family, he worked six days a week from the age of 14.

“I hated school, but I was a good listener, and I learned from watching others,” Colin says.

After starting out as an apprentice motor mechanic, Colin rose quickly through the ranks, being trained as a car valuer, before going into sales, then management and buying into the business and ultimately working with the other directors to create a company that operated across three states with more than 1,100 employees.

When the company went public in 1987, Colin set himself a goal to learn about the ASX and began investing “little bits in the share market every year”. His strategy paid off, and he retired at 50.

Beyond the company’s charity golf days, Colin and Kathryn had been making charitable donations “here and there” for many years. The decision to create a fund of their own was something that became more pronounced recently.

“We’re both 75 now and I’ve had a couple of health scares,” Colin says. “We started thinking about what we’d do if something happened to one of us.

“We don’t have children, so if we suddenly passed away, the money would go to our siblings, and they’d be dumbfounded.

“We’ve always been into charitable giving and thought about starting a trust of our own but didn’t know what to do, so I started talking to Tania about it – she’s been our advisor for a lot of years, and she suggested Foundation SA.”

After Colin and Kathryn met with the Foundation SA team, the Colin and Kathryn Causby Fund was set up in less than 48 hours.

“The process is straightforward and easy, and the management fees are really quite reasonable,” Colin says.

“It’s a really good way to continue our legacy for years down the track and not have to manage it ourselves.

“Anybody out there who’s getting a bit older and wants an easy way of giving to charity, this is it.”