Capital Counsel and other investment advisers who manage assets above $110 million must register with the Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) to comply with the Investment Advisers Act of 1940. Registered investment advisers (RIAs) provide advice about purchasing and selling securities to their clients and have a fiduciary duty to their clients to always act in their best interest.
Charitable Giving
Year-End Charitable Giving Strategies
Making gifts to charitable organizations with highly appreciated stocks is one of the benefits of being a long-term Capital Counsel client. The charity receives the market value of your gift, and you do not realize gains on the transfer. Stock gifts from individual accounts to donor-advised funds (DAFs) receive the same tax benefit. DAFs separate the timing of charitable gifts for tax purposes from gifts to charities. DAFs have no minimum annual distribution requirements as do private foundations, so you can build a giving fund while you benefit most from the tax deduction for gifts to charities.
The One Big Beautiful Bill Act passed in July 2025 changes the rules for charitable deductions beginning in January 2026. The new rule excludes 0.5% of your adjusted gross income (AGI) from your charitable gift deduction. If your AGI is $500,000, for example, $2,500 of your 2026 charitable gifts would not be deductible. This tax change raises the value of making charitable gifts before the end of this year since they will be fully deductible. Opening and funding a DAF before year-end allows you to get the full tax benefits of your gift and can cover more than one year of charitable giving.
Capital Counsel offers managed DAFs through the American Endowment Foundation. They require initial funding of $25,000 with an ongoing balance of at least $10,000. We recommend appreciated stocks to fund your DAF and manage stock sales to raise cash for your charitable contributions. You create a list of recommended donations on the AEF web site, or we can create one for you if you wish. With a minimum contribution of $250, your DAF allows you to make smaller gifts than you can with direct gifts of stock. DAFs also simplify income tax preparation. You report the contributions you made to your DAF to the IRS. You no longer need to save receipt letters from the individual charities.
Additional Insights
Broker-Dealers (BDs) must register with the SEC and are regulated by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA). BDs buy and sell securities for their clients or their own account. BDs can earn commissions for each transaction where Registered Investment Advisors usually charge a fee on the assets managed. BDs are required to make suitable recommendations based on their clients’ risk tolerance and investment experience. Unlike Capital Counsel, they often hold client assets in brokerage accounts which are not necessarily segregated from the BDs’ other assets. Capital Counsel’s client assets are held by independent custody banks.
Yes. Capital Counsel is a registered investment adviser and is regulated by the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission under the Investment Advisers Act of 1940.
Capital Counsel, founded in 1999, is an independent investment management firm based in New York City. Terence Greene and Lauren Blum are investment managers who have worked together at Capital Counsel since the inception of the firm in 1999. Justin Berrie joined the team in 2009 and became an owner in the firm in 2015. In 2020, Samuel Magid and Matthew Friedman also became owners in the firm. This continuity in leadership has strengthened our intellectual rigor and investment discipline, greatly benefiting our clients.
We are dedicated to helping our clients achieve their personal and financial goals by investing in consistently great companies and providing thoughtful, long-term guidance.
Yes. We invest our assets, including the firm’s profit sharing plan, alongside those of our clients.
No, Capital Counsel is a fee‐only Registered Investment Adviser. Our interests and incentives are aligned with our clients and we receive fees based on the market value of the assets we manage for our clients.
No. Our clients primarily hold their assets at independent custody banks such as Bank of New York Mellon, an industry leader in custody and securities processing. We help clients open accounts at the custodial firm(s) by providing clients with the necessary paperwork and then working with the custodian to ensure a complete and efficient transfer of the assets. The account is established under the client’s name, who maintains full ownership of the assets at these institutions.
