More and More Americans Give Before They Die

Americans are increasingly giving their money away while they are still alive, often by creating private foundations and hiring their children to run them or serve on the boards, reports USA Today.

The number of independent foundations has swelled by 77 percent in the past 10 years to 63,059, the newspaper notes, and nine out of 10 are family foundations, according to the Foundation Center, a New York organization that provides information to grant makers and other nonprofit groups.

Americans are not limiting their giving to charity; many people are giving money to their children and other people while they are living. According to a USA Today/Gallup Poll of 1,012 people taken this month, 22 percent of Americans have received what they view as a large gift of money from relatives who were still alive.

“Some people are giving everything away before they die,” says Eric Green, an estate lawyer, in Glastonbury, Conn. “They want to see how it turns out.”