About Josh Rendler, CFP®

I'm Josh Rendler, a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ professional in San Diego. I work with families who are retired or close to it. My focus is the tax side of retirement. That means when to convert to Roth, which accounts to draw from first, Medicare surcharges, and giving to charity in a tax-smart way.

Credentials: CFP® professional · Creator of Motion Retirement · YouTube channel · Weekly newsletter

Quick facts

Author

Josh Rendler, CFP® professional

Firm

Partner at Define Financial, an SEC-registered investment adviser (CRD 286648)

Location

San Diego, California

Publisher

Retirement Giving, a Motion Retirement site

Topic

Tax-efficient charitable giving in retirement

How content is checked

Every rule cites a primary source. Each source shows the date it was last checked. See the source library.

I built this site because giving is where I see generous retirees waste the most tax for no reason. Some are 70½ or older and write checks from the bank. Their traditional IRA could have sent the gift straight to a charity that qualifies. Up to a yearly limit, it would not be taxed. Others sell stock that has grown, pay tax on the gain, and give the cash. Say they had held the shares more than a year. Giving the shares themselves, instead of the cash, could have skipped that tax.

The rules that fix this are public. But they're spread across the tax code, IRS notices and form instructions. This site puts them in one place, in plain English, with sources you can check.

Motion Retirement

I also make Motion Retirement. It's a free weekly newsletter on taxes in retirement. There's a YouTube channel with the same name. Retirement Giving goes deep on one part of that work: giving.

How the content is checked

Every tax rule on this site ties to a primary source. That means the tax code, Treasury rules, or official IRS guidance. Each source in the source library shows the date it was last checked. The full process is in the editorial policy.