Catholic Foundation Announces 10 Free Workshops Across Four Counties

REGISTER for Fall Estate Planning Workshops

Plan Today. Protect Tomorrow. Leave a Legacy Forever.

You have spent a lifetime caring for the people you love, supporting your parish, practicing your faith and giving generously to causes that matter.

Have you created a plan to protect all of it?

This fall, the Catholic Foundation of Eastern Pennsylvania is making it easier to take that important next step by offering 10 free Estate Planning Workshops at parishes, schools and Catholic ministries throughout Berks, Lehigh, Northampton and Schuylkill counties.

The workshops follow National Make-A-Will Month in August and offer Catholics an opportunity to turn good intentions into action — by learning how a thoughtful estate plan can protect their family, preserve their wishes and continue their generosity for generations.

Estate Planning Is Really Life Planning

Creating or updating a will isn’t about dwelling on the end of life. It is about living responsibly today.

A good estate plan helps ensure that you — not the courts — decide what happens to your assets and how the people and causes you care about are remembered. It can provide clarity for your loved ones during an emotional time and reduce unnecessary uncertainty, stress and expense.

For Catholics, there is another dimension.

Estate planning can be an act of faithful stewardship — an opportunity to consider how the blessings God has entrusted to us can continue caring for our families and strengthening our faith communities long after our lifetime.

Yet many people continue to put planning aside.

Some may think, I don’t have enough money to need an estate plan. Others assume, Everything will automatically go to my children. And many simply don’t know where to begin.

The Catholic Foundation’s workshops are designed to make that first step easier.

Answers to the Questions You’ve Been Putting Off

Led by experienced members of the Catholic Foundation’s Professional Advisors Committee, the workshops provide practical, easy-to-understand information in a comfortable, pressure-free setting.

Most importantly, you don’t need to be wealthy to benefit from estate planning.

“Estate planning is not about how much you have, but about how you want to care for the people and causes you love after you are gone,” said Beth Beers, a Catholic estate planning attorney from Bath who has led Foundation workshops.

Mike Matejcek, a Catholic financial and tax consultant and President of Financial Strategies and Designs, has also participated in the Foundation’s workshops.

“These sessions are more than educational,” Matejcek said. “They are spiritual and emotional touchpoints. They provide a pressure-free space to ask questions, learn the truth, and confidently prepare for the future.”

Your Generosity Doesn’t Have to End

Estate planning also gives Catholics an opportunity to ask an important question:

What do I want my generosity to accomplish after I’m gone?

Many people faithfully support their parish, Catholic school or favorite ministry year after year. Through a charitable provision in a will, beneficiary designation or other planned gift, that support can continue beyond a lifetime.

One option is establishing or adding to a Family Endowment Fund through the Catholic Foundation.

An endowed fund is designed to last forever. Gifts are invested, with distributions supporting the Catholic causes selected by the donor year after year. A family’s generosity — and the Catholic values behind it — can continue touching lives for generations.

It is one way of turning a lifetime of giving into a legacy of faith.

10 Workshops. Four Counties. One Important Next Step.

With 10 workshops scheduled throughout Berks, Lehigh, Northampton and Schuylkill counties this fall, there has never been a better time to stop saying “I need to get around to that” and start planning.

Bring your questions. Bring your spouse or a family member. Bring the things you’ve wondered about but haven’t known whom to ask.

Then leave with something valuable:

Knowledge. Confidence. And a clearer path toward protecting the people, faith and causes you love.

Planning ahead may be one of the greatest gifts you ever leave your family.

And the legacy you create may be one of the greatest gifts you leave your Catholic faith.