Sollazzo Family: Multiplying Generosity through Appreciated Assets

Susana Sollazzo
I’m Susana Sollazzo.

Michael Sollazzo
And I’m Michael Sollazzo

Susana Sollazzo
And our journey to generosity started back in 2012.

Michael Sollazzo
I was always motivated to, you know, achieve success financially and to be a good provider. But even more than that, in this culture we live in, so often men are motivated by money and prestige. And so that was part of the reason why I ended up becoming a CPA and then attorney, because I thought that, you know, being in that career would ultimately lead to a good living that I could provide for my family.

Michael Sollazzo
And then the Great Recession hit, and it was a very challenging time. And so I’ll say that for me, even though I considered myself a Christian, my life didn’t reflect it. Seven days a week. And so really, it was coming to the end of me, realizing that it wasn’t all about what, you know, I could acquire in the Kingdom, that I could build for myself and my family. And it was during that time that I began the long journey of surrendering. And I don’t think that that’s something you do once. I think that’s something you do multiple times. In fact, I know now it’s a it’s a daily occurrence that you have to daily die to yourself. Ultimately, for me, that happened in June of 2012, where I just honestly, I, I got down on my floor and I said, okay, God, I give up. I cannot do this.

Michael Sollazzo
Ultimately, it was out of losing almost all of the things that were so important to me that I realized that I was focused on the wrong thing.

Susana Sollazzo
Because we were in in a financial situation where it wasn’t so great. Once we came to realize we’re like, wow, we have been given so much in regards to these treasures that God has allowed us to have… So we want to be able to, you know, be generous with others.

Michael Sollazzo
And so, it was through that period of time that I ultimately recognized that it was not about building my kingdom, but about building God’s Kingdom. And I’ll never forget writing this this check. It was the biggest check that I had ever written to a church. And as I wrote that check, like, I just became overwhelmed with emotion. I started weeping. And God gave me that that verse. The Lord loves a cheerful giver. And I never I never really understood that until that moment. And it was just I had so much gratitude because we were in such a difficult period of time.

Susana Sollazzo
I do remember when we talked about it and we looked at that, we’re like, wow, this feels really good. So, we always talk… we always kind of laugh about what it means to be generous and it’s an addiction. I mean, once you start giving, I think maybe it doesn’t really come in… the world tells you that you don’t really have to do that. But I think once you know how God has wired you and how God wants you to do, God wants you to be generous with all the gifts that He has given you.

Michael Sollazzo
Well, being a tax attorney and a CPA, you know, I’ve advised clients for many years that if you’re going to give, it’s better to give appreciated assets. And then it was neat to be able to actually employ that strategy when we decided to sell our company. It was, you know, a great new relationship that I had developed with The Signatry and their ability to understand the complicated nature of the gift that we were going to do because we had decided that we were going to gift part of our ownership in the company.

Michael Sollazzo
We crunched the numbers in looking at again, in giving this interest in the business, how much would that ultimately yield in the donor advised fund? What would that do to our tax liability in that year? Because obviously when you sell a business, it’s a very big income year. And in the case of The Signatry, you know, we had our donor advised fund really get super funded with the sale of the business, which allows us to give more money away to Kingdom causes than we could have been able to do if we just wrote a check. So basically, in our case and every case is going to be different, but for every dollar that we donated to The Signatry, it allowed $2.50 to be in our donor advised fund, which is which is unbelievable. So, you know, $1,000,000 turns into $2,500,000, right? That’s remarkable when you’re looking at a two and a half time multiplier on what ultimately will go to charity.

Michael Sollazzo
We know that the nonprofits that we give to are going to be far better stewards of our money than our federal and state government. So it was really at the end of the day, it was a no brainer. For Susana and for me, we have an opportunity to teach our children about generosity, about, you know, giving, legacy. And so we bring our kids into the discussion around our donor advised fund. We want them to share with us what are those causes near and dear to their heart. And so we can talk together as a family and then we can make giving decisions as a family.

Susana Sollazzo
It’s not just about what we do. It’s about what we teach the next generation and in our case, our children. So again, because we have learned about this generosity and giving, we want to do the same thing with our children.

Michael Sollazzo
The greatest legacy that we could leave to our children is a relationship with Christ. And like Susana likes to say, to love God and love others. And we can do that through being generous, through our donor advised fund, through giving to those causes that the Lord has put on our heart to give to.