MaineCF: How did you first become familiar with the Maine Community Foundation?
Edgar Catlin: I first heard of MaineCF in the 1990s through a client. I was retained to review an estate plan focused on MaineCF. I’m embarrassed to admit I wasn’t familiar with the foundation at that time; this was before “Google” was a verb or available as a search engine. I fumbled around online, became educated about MaineCF, and was impressed by what I read.
MaineCF: When do you think about the community foundation as an option for your clients?
Catlin: I first contacted MaineCF for my own purposes. In the early 2000s I was working with a group to establish a 501(c)(3) to provide camperships for deserving campers otherwise unable to attend the Maine summer camp I had attended as a kid. That effort was frustrated by a number of factors, so I turned to MaineCF.
To be a successful fund and attract donors, I knew it had to be bullet-proof from the perspective of the IRS. MaineCF’s participation, and its due diligence that preceded its involvement, assured that that would be the case. That experience, in my dual capacity of donor and advisor, convinced me that MaineCF was the preferred option for a client with a charitable focus.
MaineCF: The pandemic has caused many people to think about what is important to them and their own mortality. How do you think planned giving reflects this moment?
Catlin: Many of my colleagues report a significant increase in estate planning since March. In my own practice, I am experiencing the same.
I think that like all other things that we put off in life, those who have considered a charitable component for their estate plan are thinking these days, “If not now, when?” Planned giving can easily be a can that gets kicked down the road. I think that people who have had a planned giving intent, but who have not yet implemented it in their estate plan, are now feeling more inclined to formalize their planned giving.
MaineCF: Are there any client scenario(s) that you’d like to share?
Catlin: Over the years I have had a number of clients donate to MaineCF, whether by establishing a fund during their lifetime and providing additional funding to it via their estate plan, or by identifying one of the many funds that the foundation administers that appeals to a particular interest or matter of importance to them.
I also have introduced a client to MaineCF who wanted to make a charitable bequest but who did not have a particular focus for their giving. Again, credit goes to the client and not to me: They instructed me that their focus was MaineCF, period, without specification, i.e., making a discretionary charitable bequest to the community foundation.
I called MaineCF and learned that such a bequest is not only possible but of great importance to the lifeblood of the organization, allowing it to be nimble to address issues and challenges as they arise. That particular estate plan was finalized with the discretionary bequest to MaineCF included. Since that experience, when asked by clients for charitable bequest opportunities, I always mention a discretionary bequest to MaineCF as a possible option.
Raised in Brunswick, Maine, Edgar S. Catlin, III, received a B.A. degree from Hamilton College in 1976. Upon graduation, he returned to his hometown to work for the Maine Legislature and a local attorney. After earning a J.D. from the University of Maine School of Law in 1981, he was a law clerk for the judge for the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Maine. Catlin started practice as an associate with Locke, Campbell & Chapman in Augusta. In 1987, he joined the law firm Eaton, Peabody and became a partner in 1988. In 1994, Catlin opened his own office where he focuses on real estate, business, commercial, corporate, and banking law.
Catlin has been active in various board and advisory roles in the mid-coast region, including Brunswick Resources Corporation, Pejepscot Historical Society, First Parish Church of Brunswick, Mid-Coast Hospital, Maine Hospital Association, and Big Brothers, Big Sisters of Bath-Brunswick. He has also been a member of the Town of Brunswick Zoning Ordinance Task Force and served on the board of the Bath-Brunswick Area Chamber of Commerce.
Photo: Edgar Catlin in downtown Brunswick. Photo Sijie Yuhan/Maine Community Foundation
