About the Million Dollar Round Table

A registered financial advisor and president of Charity Planning Services, Rich Kruithoff has experience maximizing tax efficiencies for CPAs. He has held various executive positions, including vice president of human resources and vice president of the National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors. Rich Kruitoff has earned many accolades, including the Million Dollar Round Table (MDRT) award.

Established in 1927, the MDRT is an independent association of leading insurance and financial services professionals worldwide. The members represent over 500 companies from 70 countries. MDRT brings together experts, professionals, and leading minds to share best practices, knowledge, service, and product expertise.

The 32 founders coined the term “Million Dollar.” The founders were life insurance professionals who had amassed $1 million worth of life insurance.

The MDRT Annual Meeting, MDRT Global Conference, EDGE, and Top of the Table events bring together the global members. The members network and listen to keynote and industry leaders’ speeches when they meet. They also share local and international trends.

A Brief Overview of Donor Advised Funds

 A Las Vegas-based tax consultant with a diverse entrepreneurial and financial background, Rich Kruithoff has served as the president and owner of Charitable Planning Services since 2016. He provides consulting services to CPAs on various tax planning issues. Additionally, Rich Kruithoff has presented on the topic of tax-saving measures for donor-advised funds.

A donor-advised fund is a suitable way to continue devoting charitable efforts to nonprofits regardless of the size of post-retirement income. An investor transfers cash, securities, or other assets to an IRS-qualified public charity through a donor-advised fund. After transferring an asset to a donor-asset fund, it can grow tax-free. At any point in the future, an investor may decide to donate the asset to one or more nonprofits.

Besides the tax deduction associated with contributing assets to donor-advised funds, the account also paves the way for seamless stock donations. Not all local charities can accept stock donations - donor-advised funds removes this concern. Investors can specify the amount of cash they want a beneficiary nonprofit to receive. Then, the charity handles the conversion.

Donor-advised funds offer several benefits for people who intend to pass on their philanthropic legacies to younger generations. Many sponsors provide a helpful account management option.

January Events in the Early History

Rich Kruithoff helps charitably minded clients minimize their tax burdens through Charitable Planning Services, a Las Vegas-based consultancy that he owns and leads as president. In his free time, Rich Kruithoff enjoys studying American history.

January of each year marks an important month in the history of the American flag. Prior to the adoption of the stars and stripes design that Americans know today, George Washington ordered the raising of the first U.S. flag near his headquarters in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on January 1, 1776.

The flag, which consists of the familiar alternating red and white stripes but with the British Union Jack placed where the star pattern in today’s flag appears, was flown for the first time on the warship Alfred a month before. Admiring the design, Washington had the Grand Union Flag raised on New Year’s Day to commemorate the establishment of the Continental Army.

Eighteen years later, in January of 1794, Washington was involved in another significant vexillological event when as president he approved the addition of two stripes and two stars to the national flag. The changes to the flag, which by that time had taken on the well-known 13-star-and-13-stripe design, were prompted by Vermont and Kentucky joining the Union. The flag continued to feature 15 stripes until 1818, when the recognition of five new states brought about a return to the 13-stripe design.

Story of Original Star-Spangled Banner

Rich Kruithoff is a financial services professional who meets the needs of diverse high-wealth clients as the head of Charitable Planning Services, LLC. An outdoors enthusiast who enjoys fishing and boating, Rich Kruithoff also has a passion for US history.

One of the most unique items featured at the National Museum of American History in Washington DC is the "Star-Spangled Banner.” The banner framed at the Smithsonian Institute is actually the larger of two flags commissioned by Major George Armistead, the commander of Fort McHenry in Baltimore. It was created by local flag maker Mary Pickersgill, who was paid $168.54 for the smaller storm flag and $404.90 for the larger garrison flag.

It was this larger flag, raised high above Fort McHenry as British ships rained fire on it during the War of 1812, that inspired Francis Scott Key to compose a patriotic poem. Decades later, after the Civil War, the poem was set to music as the national anthem and the famous flag became enshrined in history.

Today, Pickersgill’s torn and tattered Star-Spangled Banner, meticulously restored during a “Save America’s Treasures” initiative in the late 1990s, stands as a framed reminder of that momentous period in US history when the nascent nation’s future was at stake.