brown on green, A Regular column about finances

The Cowlick

My great-grandfather, James Franklin Brown, was born in 1854 and died in 1922. My grandfather, Thomas Harvey Brown, was one of his youngest children. My Dad, Donald Theo Brown was one of my grandpa’s youngest born in 1931. He never met his grandpa James Franklin, but we have two photos and one painting of him. All reveal an obvious cowlick in his hair. My grandpa, my dad, and I also have this cowlick, which I have passed along to my son Reese. It is the cowlick that will not die. That little piece of James Franklin Brown lives on in me.

My Mom was a Richardson. The Richardsons are tall folks. My Mom was five-eleven, and she had five sisters ranging from five-ten to six feet. Her only brother was six-two, and my grandpa Richardson was six-four, pretty tall for someone born in 1908. The fact that I’m six-two (and a half) tells me the Richardsons live on in me.

We are happy to have children and grandchildren because little parts of us continue to live on in them. We leave a physical legacy on earth. My great-grandfather and grandpa are long gone, and my dad is 86, but little pieces of them are still present in me. I am a living legacy.

It’s even more important to leave a spiritual legacy for children and grandchildren. Great-grandpa Brown was a Free Will Baptist pastor and one of the founders of the Saline Association in southern Arkansas in 1897. Both Browns and Richardsons passed down a spiritual legacy to me.

I want to encourage you to leave a financial legacy as well—a legacy to Free Will Baptists that will continue to bless our ministries until Jesus returns. You can do this in a number of ways, but perhaps the easiest is simply to tithe on your estate. The Foundation, through our partners

Cornerstone Estate Planning, can help with this. We offer church seminars to explain the best ways to settle estates and leave a ministry legacy. But if you are interested in setting up an estate plan, don’t wait to hear the seminar. A representative will be glad to call, go over the plan, and offer needed assistance.

Another way to endow a ministry is through a planned gift, where you receive lifetime income. When you die, the gift goes to ministry. We also offer Money Management Trusts, like savings accounts, though which you can make a provisional gift to ministry while earning at least 2.75% on your money. The capital gains from this Money Management Trust program produce grants to be distributed to FWB ministries—$500,000 in 2017 alone!

We all enjoy seeing the little pieces of ourselves in our grandchildren, but let’s leave a piece of our estates, as well, to help continue the ministry of Free Will Baptists for generations to come.

About the Writer: David Brown, CPA, became director of the Free Will Baptist Foundation in 2007. Send your questions to David at david@nafwb.org. To learn how the Foundation can help you become a more effective giver, call 877-336-7575.