W I N T E R 2 0 1 8 1 9 ADVISOR PROFILE EVERYESTATE ASTORY An interview with estates and trusts attorney Heather Stumpf Attorney Heather Stumpf helps her clients consider how charitable giving fits into their estate plan. affect personal income taxes. We need more information, including new tax forms and new rules for workplace payroll deductions. In my opinion, there are more questions than answers at this point. A drop of as much as $60 million in charitable giving has been predicted in our region alone, due to changes in the tax code around deductions and itemizing. Do you think your clients may give differently or less? In my experience, there are those who are charitably minded and those who are not. The charitably minded are going to continue to give because they care about specific organi- zations. I’m not sure they will give as much due to the near doubling of the federal income tax deduction. If you had any advice to give to your younger self, what would it be? I would tell myself that taking a winding career path, like I did, is a strength. A lot of young lawyers become summer interns at a firm and then may stay in the same type of firm for their entire careers. I didn’t do that and have a much broader understanding than if I had stayed where I started right out of law school. My pastor calls it the tapestry: Underneath it’s a big mess of strings but on top it’s beautiful and it all makes perfect sense. By Kitty Julian