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For financial advisers and investment professionals serving clients with charitable objectives, the Scranton Area Community Foundation (SAF) created the Medallion Partner group as a way to work with financial professionals to better serve their clients.
Current Members of Medallion Partners Group
Once financial professionals are accepted into Medallion Partner group by SAF's Investment Committee, Medallion Partners have the ability to collaborate with SAF to create charitable funds that are administered by SAF but managed and invested by the Medallion Partner. Based on assets under management, Medallion Partners are grouped into three categories: Gold, Silver, and Bronze. Gold Level Partners currently have assets under management; Silver Level Partners are managing planned gifts; Bronze Level Partners have been fully vetted and approved as Medallion Partners by SAF but do not yet have assets under management.
Gold Level
PNC Bank
Paul W. Kamor
Peoples Security Bank and Trust
Michael G. Ostermayer, CFA
Bender Wealth Management Group
William H. Bender, CFP, CIMA
William H. Bender II, CFP, CIMA, CRPC
Melissa Bender Simrell, CFP, CRPC
Dustin J. Bender, CFP, CRPC
Maria Sordoni
Kathleen Buck
Susie Hart-Jacquinot
Kevin M. Bender, CRPC
Brian Corbett, CFA
EH&L Group
Stephen L. Hudacek
Stephen L. Hudacek III
Jude Leibman
Stacey Erickson
Alpert, Yanoski and Associates
Megan Alpert
Ronald Yanoski
Timothy McNamara
Bronze Level
Joshua L. Bradley, FNCB Wealth Management Services*
Ellen Burkey, Ameriprise Financial Services, Inc.*
Charles Curtin, JD, LLM, CTFA, Trust Officer, Honesdale National Bank*
Christopher L. DiMattio, FNCB Wealth Management Services*
Louis Ingargiola, Owner, Ingargiola Wealth Management Group*
Thaddeus Kenny, Owner, Ameriprise Financial Services, Inc.*
Sean McAndrew, Ingargiola Wealth Management Group*
Thomas P. Tulaney, II, FNCB Wealth Management Services*
Jennifer Williamson, Ameriprise Financial Services, Inc.*
Ryan Wilson, CPA, CFP, Wilson Wealth Management, Janney Montgomery Scott LLC*
Diane Wylam, Esq., Senior Vice President & Senior Trust Officer, Wayne Bank*
* Indicates Founding Member of Medallion Partner Group
Becoming an Approved Medallion Partner has numerous benefits for advisers and their clients because it will enable clients to accomplish charitable giving and philanthropic planning using the wide variety of planned giving vehicles and expertise at SAF, while allowing clients to choose and retain the investment and financial advisors they trust. The following paragraphs include answers to the most frequently asked questions about this exciting opportunity.
Q. What are Medallion Partners?
A. The Medallion Partners is a new opportunity for Investment Professionals to partner with SAF to better meet the philanthropic needs of their clients, all while maintaining relationships with their clients, control over investment strategies, and all of the related investment income. Medallion Partners is the name given to the group of investment professionals who are approved to partner with SAF.
Q. What is the process to become a Medallion Partner?
A. Financial and Investment professionals interested in becoming a Medallion Partner would be 'approved' or 'vetted' by SAF. The approval process includes a review of policies, investment statements, and related documents, in addition to a meeting with Scranton Area Community Foundation Investment Committee members. For access to the application materials necessary to join the Medallion Partner group, please go here.
Q. What are the Medallion Partner levels?
A. The levels are Gold, Silver, and Bronze. Gold means that the financial institution or investment adviser is currently managing assets that have been charitably gifted to the Scranton Area Foundation. Silver means that the financial institution or adviser will be managing a planned gift upon the execution of a will. Bronze means that the financial institution or adviser is "vetted" or "approved" by the Scranton Area Community Foundation to serve as a Medallion Partner now, and in the future.
Q. Why should Investment Advisors and their clients partner with SAF?
A. The Scranton Area Community Foundation has a 62 year history of managing charitable giving, holds $32 million in assets, and is comprised of over 200 individual charitable funds. In addition, we manage three additional Foundations totaling over $30 million. We have also provided over $15 million in charitable gifts to the Lackawanna County region. Due to this long proven history of stewardship, we have gained the community's trust as a charitable partner. We are the ideal partner for investment advisers and their clients, because we offer a variety of charitable giving vehicles which enhance investment advisers' service offerings, without ever competing for their business.
Q. Why did SAF start a Medallion Partner program?
A. We realize the important relationships that people have with their investment advisers and financial professionals, and instituted this program so that people can receive the benefits of working with the Scranton Area Community Foundation to do their charitable planning, but can maintain their relationship with investment advisers, who will continue to receive the investment income. Through nationwide research and evaluation, SAF has learned that this is a successful model at Community Foundations all over the nation, which results in benefits to all involved.
Q. How will my client's assets be invested?
A. If you become an approved Medallion Partner, you decide how and where to invest your client's assets. In order to ensure a permanent philanthropic legacy, SAF will provide Medallion Partners with investment guidelines/parameters that are in the Investment Policy Statement which was designed by our Chief Investment Officer (CIO) and approved by our President & CEO and Board of Governors.
Q. What fees can I expect when working with SAF?
A. The answer to this question varies. Because SAF is a community-focused nonprofit public foundation, fees are quite low when measured against similar service providers, and when taking into account all of the services that are included when working with SAF. The administrative fees for establishing a permanently endowed fund range from 1%-2% annually; whereas the fees associated with a non-endowed are a one-time only 5% charge on the funds received. This results in significant savings for your clients. For private foundation management services, SAF works with individual clients to determine what services are desired and a contracted fee for services is agreed upon by SAF and the client. Finally, there is absolutely no fee to become a Medallion Partner.
Q. Are the fees the same if my client is interested in creating a large fund?
A. Permanently endowed funds beyond $1 million will be assessed at the appropriate rate up the $1 million level, and at 1% beyond that level.
Q. Why should I become a Medallion Partner?
A. The benefits to becoming the first investment managers to be approved as a Medallion Partner are significant. You will receive the following advantages:
Q. Can my clients keep their attorney? Accountant? Advisor?
A. Absolutely! The purpose of the Medallion Partners is to allow clients to maintain the relationships with the professionals they know and trust while still being able to create a philanthropic legacy through SAF. The goal of the Medallion Partners is to encourage charitably minded clients to work with SAF, while maintaining the professional relationships they choose. Through the Medallion Partner program, SAF is here to completely support Medallion Partners in meeting their clients' needs.
Q. Does SAF offer any unique incentives to my clients?
A. Yes! Clients interested in creating an endowed fund with SAF will be given a match of 20% of the first $25,000 (up to $5,000) used to create a fund. That is a highly unique value-added service that SAF provides your clients.
Q. What information or guidance can SAF provide?
A. SAF will discuss philanthropic options with you and your clients. SAF will sit down with you and your client to decide if working with SAF is the right choice and the best options for accomplishing your client's charitable objectives. Even if your client decides not to work with SAF, our knowledgeable staff will continue to provide information and insights when requested by you. This information ranges from current information about charitable giving vehicles; Unique insights on the greatest challenges facing our community and the greatest areas of need which would benefit from your clients' charitable interests; and Local and national trends in philanthropy.
Q. What charitable vehicles can SAF offer my clients?
A. Visit us online at www.safdn.org for a full description of charitable vehicles available through SAF.
Q. Does my client need to make an annual distribution from their fund?
A. Your client can establish a Donor Advised Fund to maximize their tax benefits, but is not required to make a fixed distribution from the fund on an annual basis. Foundation policies require a distribution from a fund every three years. This is a valuable service for clients in lieu of having a private foundation, which requires that they distribute 5% from their fund annually.
Q. What about Planned Gifts and Bequests?
A. Through the Medallion Partner program, investment advisers who partner with SAF to manage their clients' charitable giving continue to retain the investment income from their clients' charitable bequest following the execution of their client's will. This is a very unique aspect of the Medallion Partner program at the Scranton Area Community Foundation as these assets usually go directly to a charitable entity and the investment adviser loses access to the investment income.
Q. My client has his own Foundation, but there are challenges and costs to managing it. What can SAF do to assist other Foundations, such as my client's?
A. Whether your client is thinking about creating a foundation or is already involved in running an existing Foundation, SAF may be able to help. SAF offers a variety of charitable fund vehicles that operate comparatively to a private foundation. Philanthropic clients interested in creating an independent foundation may find it more cost- and time- effective to establish a donor advised fund vehicle with SAF instead. Also your client will then have significantly more flexibility in fund distribution rates than they would through their own private foundation.
Alternatively, SAF can also provide the necessary administrative functions for an existing foundation by contracting to provide foundation management services. Currently, SAF serves as the administrator to several other foundations by providing accounting, reporting, grant making, marketing, event planning, and numerous other functions, while the Foundation retains control of their own investments.
Q. My client is an agency or organization with its own endowment. How can SAF help them?
A. You can retain investment management of the endowment for your client, but SAF can help eliminate the need to burden volunteer trustees with fiduciary oversight responsibility. The layer of responsibility can instead be assumed by SAF, an organization with a 62 year history of stewardship. This is an added value for volunteer trustees who may feel overwhelmed with this significant level of fiduciary responsibility required in overseeing an endowment. This is a value for a nonprofit organization or educational institution that places their endowment with SAF, while their investment advisor (You) manages the endowment through the Medallion Partner program.
Q. What if my client no longer wants to work with SAF?
A. If a client is dissatisfied with some aspect of SAF's administration, SAF will be happy to speak with the client directly and work on a solution to the problem. SAF takes great pride in maintaining its relationship with the people who trust SAF to administer a fund. If the challenges are insurmountable, however, and the fund is non-endowed, your client has the option of transferring it to a different 501(c)(3) organization.
Q. What are the investment and distribution rules/mandates?
A. Advisers have discretion over the investment profile, as long as they are adhering to the parameters provided in the Scranton Area Foundations Investment Policy Statement (IPS). The Board of Governors monitors exposure to stay within the overall IPS guidelines for the portfolio, and related performance, as part of their fiduciary responsibility. The distribution rules and mandates depend on the fund vehicle. Non-endowed funds have a flexible distribution rate, and endowed funds have a fixed rate to ensure perpetuity. To request a copy of the IPS, please contact Rachel Drazdowski, Esq., Director of Philanthropy, by email at [email protected].