Turning Personal Wealth Into a Tax-Effective Lasting Legacy

Most people who’ve built significant personal wealth – whether through a business they’ve built, a senior executive career, or a well-timed equity stake – give back in some way.

A donation here, a sponsorship there, support for a cause that matters to them personally. But for those who’ve accumulated genuinely substantial wealth, a different question often starts to surface: how do you make giving last beyond a single cheque?

This case study looks at how BridgePoint Group helped a long-standing client turn that question into a structured, tax-effective plan – and why the answer matters for anyone starting to think seriously about legacy, not just their next tax return.

The client

The client spent decades in a senior executive career with a major global financial services company, building substantial personal wealth largely through company shares over that time – a classic example of wealth built through executive equity rather than business ownership. Now retired, their personal wealth sits at around $35 million, including a share portfolio and a sizeable residential property portfolio of around 15 rental properties.

Twelve months ago, they came to BridgePoint Group with an idea: they wanted to set up a foundation.

The giving back idea

Like a lot of people who’ve done well financially, the client had been making ad hoc donations for years – a few hundred dollars here, a contribution there, whenever a cause caught their attention. But they wanted something different: a structure that would let their giving keep growing and keep giving, year after year, long after any single donation was spent.

What they landed on, through early conversations with BridgePoint Group, was a private ancillary fund – essentially a private charitable foundation. Rather than simply giving away a lump sum, they would contribute a substantial amount (in this case, shares rather than cash) into their own fund. That fund would then invest the money, generate income through dividends, distributions, interest and capital growth, and distribute a portion – a minimum of 5% of the fund’s value each year – to charities on an ongoing basis.

The appeal was straightforward: instead of $1 million being spent once, that $1 million keeps working, keeps growing, and keeps giving indefinitely – with the flexibility to eventually roll into a public fund, or convert to cash, if their priorities ever changed. It’s a legacy structure they can ultimately pass on to their children to continue.

Tax-effective donation: where BridgePoint Group added value

The foundation itself was entirely the client’s idea – this wasn’t something BridgePoint Group proposed to him. But turning that idea into a properly structured, tax-effective reality is where the real work began.

Working through the tax treatment of a share donation. Because the client intended to donate shares rather than cash – keeping the shares invested inside the fund rather than selling them first – the tax deductibility wasn’t automatic in the way a straightforward cash donation would be. We worked through the client’s specific circumstances to confirm the donation would, in fact, be deductible.
Identifying the option to spread the deduction. Rather than the client being locked into claiming their entire donation in the year they made it, we identified that the deduction could be spread over up to five years. For a client actively planning around other events – potential property sales, capital gains, and broader personal tax strategy in light of recent changes to property-related tax rules – that flexibility mattered. It meant he could commit the money to the foundation now, while retaining the ability to claim the deduction in whichever year made the most financial sense for him.
Stepping into a formal governance role. Private ancillary funds are required by law to have an independent “responsible person” – often an accountant or lawyer, unrelated to the fund’s founder – whose job is to ensure every decision made by the fund’s trustees is genuinely in the best interests of the foundation and the causes it will ultimately support. The client asked BridgePoint Group to take on this role. We agreed, contributing this oversight on a pro bono basis, consistent with our existing pro bono work supporting charitable organisations more broadly like Gift Of Life Foundation and Mates Against Melanoma.

For the client, the value wasn’t just the tax outcome, though that mattered. It was the confidence that the structure was sound, compliant, and would genuinely deliver on what he was trying to achieve – without unnecessary complexity or risk.

Why tax-effective donations matter

Not everyone is contemplating a $35 million foundation. But whether that wealth has come from building and selling a business, years of executive equity, or a career of disciplined investing, the underlying pattern here plays out at almost every level of significant personal wealth:

A good idea isn’t the same as a well-structured one. Knowing you want to give back is one thing; understanding the tax, legal and governance mechanics of doing it properly is another. This is especially true when the asset being given isn’t cash – shares, property or other holdings all carry their own rules.
Timing flexibility can be as valuable as the deduction itself. The ability to choose which year a tax benefit lands in – rather than being forced to claim it all at once – can matter more to long-term planning than the deduction amount alone, particularly for people juggling other significant financial events like a property sale or a liquidity event.
The right adviser looks beyond the immediate ask. A conversation that starts with “can I claim a deduction on this?” can – and often should – extend into a broader discussion about structure, governance and long-term intent.

For high-net-worth individuals – business owners, senior executives and entrepreneurs alike – starting to think about what their success should build beyond their own lifetime, the lesson is simple: the earlier you bring in the right advice, the more options you keep open.

Thinking about your own tax position?

Personal wealth rarely fits neatly into a standard tax return – share portfolios, property holdings, deductions that can be timed and structured, and decisions like this one that carry consequences well beyond a single financial year.

BridgePoint Group’s personal tax services are built for exactly this kind of complexity, helping individuals make sense of their options and structure their affairs with confidence, rather than guessing at what’s possible.

If you’re weighing up a significant financial decision of your own – whether that’s a donation, an investment, a sale, or simply getting a clearer picture of where you stand – get in touch with the BridgePoint Group tax team to talk through your options.