When most people hear the words “planned giving,” their eyes glaze over.

In the over-50 population, there’s a general lack of awareness and understanding about the concept. This is too bad, because with the collective wealth of baby boomers, their planned gifts can have significant social impact.

Planned giving is the process of making a sizable charitable gift either during a donor’s life or at their death as part of their financial or estate plan.

So, what does designating a charitable gift in a will or an estate plan entail?

Well, first and foremost, it requires thinking about one’s death—an uncomfortable topic for many people and downright taboo in some cultures.

The process of making a planned gift may also conjure up complex financial and technical legal protocols. That’s why many people turn to an estate planning attorney when contemplating distribution of their assets.

I’ve trained my mom to be a case manager for seniors. Well, not really, but linking our daily conversations along with her 85 years of life experience, my mom can give some pretty good advice when asked.

Mom has known her close friend Bernadette since high school. They both married their hometown sweethearts, and the two couples moved and bought houses less than a block from one another.

They raised their children together, and when the kids began school, my mother and Bernadette found jobs at the same school district. They worked there for many years until their retirement.

The similarities did not stop there. Bernadette’s husband received a Parkinson’s diagnosis in his early 70s. My dad was diagnosed just a few years later. It was a blow to all of us that two men who became such close friends would be diagnosed with the same serious disease within such a short time span.