How Estate Planning Can Fuel Generosity With Mike Cherewka

April 28, 2025

In this episode of You Can’t Take it With You, host Jim Dunlop sits down with Mike Cherewka, Founder and Owner of Cherewka Law PC, to discuss how estate planning can serve as a vehicle for generosity. They explore creative giving strategies, the role of charitable trusts, and how to empower clients to support causes they care about. Mike also shares how collaboration with financial advisors enhances long-term impact.

Mike Cherewka is the Founder and Owner of Cherewka Law PC, a firm providing comprehensive legal services in estate planning, business law, real estate, and nonprofit organizations. Mike began his career in the Tax Department of Ernst & Whinney in 1981 before entering private practice in 1983. In 1989, he founded The Law Offices of Michael Cherewka, which has since evolved into Cherewka Law PC, serving clients throughout Pennsylvania. Beyond his legal practice, Mike is a licensed real estate broker in Pennsylvania and Maryland and a founding member of Paramount Settlement Services, LLC, a full-service central Pennsylvania title company.

Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:

[2:28] Mike Cherewka reflects on growing up in a small Pennsylvania coal town and early lessons in community values and faith
[5:13] How church food drives and school fundraisers shaped Mike’s generosity mindset
[8:18] Creative ways clients use estate planning to support causes close to their hearts
[10:37] The function and benefits of charitable remainder trusts for legacy giving
[17:27] Why some clients choose to give generously during their lifetime instead of waiting
[20:36] Mike’s collaborative approach to legal work alongside financial and tax advisors
[27:17] Helping clients create employment opportunities for neurodivergent young adults

In this episode:

Estate planning is often viewed as a technical, numbers-driven process — but what if it could be something more? What if it became a powerful tool for shaping the future and impacting lives instead of just distributing assets? Can thoughtful planning today fuel meaningful generosity tomorrow?

According to Mike Cherewka, a seasoned estate planning attorney with decades of experience, the answer is a resounding yes. He explains that estate planning isn’t just about wealth transfer; it’s a way to align financial decisions with personal values. He highlights how tools like charitable remainder trusts and endowments can turn a client’s generosity into an enduring legacy. Mike’s stories bring to life how thoughtful planning transforms intent into real community impact.

In this episode of You Can’t Take it With You, host Jim Dunlop sits down with Mike Cherewka, Founder and Owner of Cherewka Law PC, to discuss how estate planning can serve as a vehicle for generosity. They explore creative giving strategies, the role of charitable trusts, and how to empower clients to support causes they care about. Mike also shares how collaboration with financial advisors enhances long-term impact.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

Quotable Moments

“Not only raising money for charity but also just trying to have some fun while you’re doing it.”
“I can’t say in my early career I had a lot of treasure, but I did rapidly figure it out.”
“You almost felt what? Now, what do we do? You know what’s next?”
“We provide some entertainment, I guess, because you have a bunch of lawyers and paralegals trying to act as bartenders.”
“At the end of the day, will people think that you left the world a better place?”

Action Steps

Use estate planning to align finances with values: Strategic planning helps ensure your wealth supports the causes and communities you care about most.
Explore charitable remainder trusts: These trusts allow you to generate income now while leaving a lasting legacy for nonprofit organizations.
Give while you’re still living: Donating during your lifetime lets you witness the impact of your generosity and adjust your plans as needed.
Collaborate with advisors for holistic planning: Working with legal, financial, and tax professionals creates more intentional, impactful giving strategies.
Engage in planned giving with smaller organizations: Structuring gifts thoughtfully can empower local nonprofits without overwhelming their capacity or operations.

Sponsor for this episode:

This episode is brought to you by Advent Partners — a financial planning partner dedicated to helping you make informed decisions that simplify your financial journey.

Our seasoned team of professionals is committed to guiding you toward your financial goals. We offer tailored solutions based on your specific needs, from standalone financial planning to integrated financial management.

Whether you are planning for the future, investing for growth, or navigating financial hurdles, Advent Partners is here to provide insights, recommendations, and a clear financial roadmap.

To learn more about Advent Partners and how we can guide your financial success, visit AdventPartnersFP.com.

Episode Transcript

Intro: 00:00

Welcome to the You Can’t Take it With You show where we feature stories around generosity designed to inspire and encourage others to do meaningful things in their communities. Now, here’s your host, Jim Dunlop.

Jim Dunlop: 00:17

Hi. Jim Dunlop here, a wealth advisor and host of this show, where I sit down with people who get it when it comes to generosity, I’m excited to have guests who can give us stories on generosity to not only inspire our listeners, but to give practical ideas on ways we can give. Today’s guest is Mike Cherewka. Past guests include Peter Greer, Jim Langley, and Phil Cubeta. But before we get to Mike, I want to share that this episode is brought to you by Advent Partners.

Ready for good. Advent is a financial planning team dedicated to helping you make informed decisions that simplify your financial journey. At Advent Partners, we’re ready for good. Our bold, ten year vision is to help clients donate $100 million to transform lives through generosity and planning, united by generosity, relationship excellence, authenticity, and fun. We empower meaningful lives and lasting community impact.

To learn more about Advent Partners and how we can guide your financial success, visit readyforgood.com. Now let me tell you about Mike. Mike has lived in central Pennsylvania since graduating from Dickinson Law in early 1980s. He and his spouse have been married for 40 years and are proud parents of three married adult children and grandparents to one granddaughter.

He began his career in the tax department at Ernst and Ernst, before founding his own law firm in 1989. Two. The firm has grown to include three attorneys and a dedicated support team of five, with offices in Wormleysburg and York, Pennsylvania. They’re also licensed to practice in Maryland and Florida. Their boutique firm specializes in estate planning, elder law, estate and trust administration, and services for small businesses, real estate, and nonprofit organizations.

They also support charitable and plan giving strategies to support charitable organizations. I’ve had the opportunity to collaborate with Mike professionally over the years, and it’s an honor to have him here. Mike, welcome.

Mike Cherewka: 02:08

Well, thank you, Jim. I appreciate the opportunity to get in front of you.

Jim Dunlop: 02:11

Yeah. Well, I think this is, again, a show designed to inspire listeners about generosity. So before we get into it, could you tell us a little bit about you and maybe a little more color to your backstory, a little five minute autobiography here?

Mike Cherewka: 02:28

Sure. I mean, prior to being in central Pennsylvania, I was born up in the small town of Taylor, which is near Scranton, small coal town. I think at the time I was there, there was probably, yeah, 13 or 14,000 people in it. It’s probably about half that size now, but it was a great little town to grow up in. We always used to laugh.

It was about ten years behind everybody else in Pennsylvania. But as especially as a young kid, it was a lot of fun growing up up there. They used to call us crackers, coal crackers from coming up there. So a lot of times, even down here in central PA, people that have moved down here or are familiar with the area will still bring that up every once in a while in a meeting or or a conversation. Slowly moved south.

The undergraduate was at Bucknell, and Jim and I have had a lot of fun over the years because he’s from Susquehanna, which is literally right down the road from Bucknell.

Jim Dunlop: 03:32

Yep.

Mike Cherewka: 03:33

I wouldn’t I wouldn’t say it was a rivalry, but there’s always been a some kind of a friendly tension between the two schools over the years.

Jim Dunlop: 03:42

Absolutely.

Mike Cherewka: 03:45

And that eventually Dickinson Law School. And then I ended up in Camp Hill after graduating from law school.

Jim Dunlop: 03:53

Oh. Very good. So. And and I know now your kids are all grown. Two went to Bucknell and Saint and one at Saint Joe’s.

And. And now you have a granddaughter, correct?

Mike Cherewka: 04:06

Yeah. We do. It’s. The last couple of years have been great. We were laughing this year.

It was like we took a deep breath after we did. My daughter got married, the baby, and it was. Oh, boy. Yeah. No tuition and no more weddings.

You almost felt the what? Now what do we do? You know what’s next? So that’s been an interesting change. But yeah, the kids are all.

They all did well in school. They all married well. And only ones in the area. Ones up in New York, ones up in Massachusetts. But that fortunately, at this stage of my career, I’m able to take some time off and my wife and I are able to visit them a lot.

Jim Dunlop: 04:48

Oh, good. So I want to start by, you know, Mike, I know that you have a lot of personal Generosity in your in your DNA. Just as I’ve gotten to know you, I know you guys do an annual tap takeover to support the Payton Walker Foundation, but kind of taking a step back from that. Tell me your generosity. Origin story.

What where did it start for you personally?

Mike Cherewka: 05:13

It actually started out very young. Yeah. And it was small town America where I grew up. Church was a really big part of of life. I recall very early on, you know, my dad being involved in food drives and we’re always doing stuff for other families.

And then even once school, in grade school, you know, I go back to when the we used to do like the fundraising for the March of Dimes, where, where you’d go around with a card and people would donate money and you’d put them in the punch cards and hand them in at school. So the fundraising started early. I the most fun was definitely doing Thanksgiving Christmas food drives with the church. You know, when you’re little, you’re just running around and you’re really not sure what’s going on. But little by little, you know, we were allowed to help pack the boxes.

And when I got my driver’s license, we were allowed to drive around and deliver the food to the parishioners. And that just continued Bucknell. We did a a large part of the the fraternities or the honor societies. We usually had some type of a charity that you would pick and do a fundraising for. I remember doing bounce for beats, which used to be on American Heart Association.

We did that every year for my frat, and then it just as life went on, it took different aspects fundraising for Bucknell after when I became an alumni. I was chairman of the Heart Association in Pennsylvania. So there was a lot of plan giving involved at that level locally. Had a ball for years doing the jail bill event for which is a special event for the Heart Association. It used to be at the old what they used to call the east wall.

And you would literally put up a fake jail and you would put celebrities in there, and then they would call their donors to try to bail them out. And and that was always a that was a big that was a fun event. So not only raising money for charity, but also just trying to have some fun while you’re doing it was was a big part of growing up. Kids got involved in that as they got when they were old enough. So it’s been a good time.

Jim Dunlop: 07:46

Yeah. So I, I want to I want to take a step back here. You and I have had a chance to collaborate. You know, team up together to help serve some clients. And I know you’ve.

You’ve helped a lot of your clients over the years do some really creative things. Would you would you mind sharing some stories that stick with you of, of people who came to you that were looking for a way to to do something meaningful for an organization or in their community, but needed help figuring out the mechanics. And tell me a little bit about that.

Mike Cherewka: 08:18

Sure. I mean, over the years, it’s maybe it’s who we are, or maybe it’s just we we’ve been blessed with really good clients, but many times clients will come in that they want to do something special. It could be for their church. It could be for their alma mater. It could be for some.

I would call it like a legacy charity. There may have been a lot of people were touched by heart disease or cancer Or some other event where they felt that they wanted to do something to pay back, if you will, for either a way a family member was treated or for a recovery that somebody had. And I remember learning very on at Bucknell from a really older alumni. And he always used to say the triple T, you know, time, treasure and talent. And it took me a while to figure out what he was talking about.

But as the clients come in or as the opportunities presented itself, I can’t say on my early career I had a lot of treasure, but I did rapidly figure it out. I did have some time, and I had a certain type of talent, and that talent was just trying to figure out ways to help people do what they wanted to do. Early on, I was working with the United Way, working with the Allied Arts Foundation locally. In times I would just get called in and say, all right, they want to do this. And, you know, it might be an endowment type situation or it might be a they can’t afford to do it now, but they want to do this.

And we’ve had some a lot of again, I call it fun. It’s you know, you’re going for a good ending. So how do you get there. And very on early on that we used to before they became real popular some charitable remainder trusts.

Jim Dunlop: 10:28

Could you, could you take a moment and just kind of briefly describe how a charitable remainder trust works to our, our listeners who might not be familiar? Sure.

Mike Cherewka: 10:37

The idea there is a client may want to either for tax purposes, income tax purposes, or to help the charity. They want to be able to give money to them, but they don’t feel that they could give up the money right now. So the idea would be they may need something to support themselves. So sometimes somebody’s getting ready to retire, they want an annuity, or they want a stream of income for a period of years or for the rest of their life. But at the end of the day, they want that money to go to a charity.

So the charitable remainder trust, the remainder being the charity, you can set those up to facilitate that. We’ve used that for mom and dad or grandma and grandpa feel that they don’t need the money anymore, but they might want to help their kids or their grandkids. We’ve done them to set up like college tuition, so it might be a short trust and they’d only be five years or six years. But the idea is the funding was there to pay the tuition and then at the end of the period, it goes on to whoever the charity is. They choose their.

We’ve had a couple of clients that were charitably inclined and either separated from local businesses or got a severance payment, and for them it was a double win. They were they needed a deduction, but they didn’t really they weren’t ready to give up all of the money yet because they just retired so many times. You’d set up the trust, they would get a current deduction to offset the income tax on their severance payment or their buyout. But at the end of the day, they knew that the they were going to benefit a charity that they had picked out to to get the ultimate benefit after they took care of themselves or they took care of their spouse. So those have been a great tool, particularly in this area where people tend to be a little bit more conservative.

It’s a great tool for them.

Jim Dunlop: 12:46

Any other stories that come to mind that might inspire our listeners to think about their own personal generosity?

Mike Cherewka: 12:54

Yeah, I think a lot of times it’s when we’re working with a client, it may not always be just, what can I do later? We I have a gentleman that passed away recently. He’s been a client for a long time. And over the years, he was he had no children. He had a parent to take care of.

So the originally the plan was set up for the two of them. Take care of mom if something happened to him. But at the same time, they were very active in their church. They were very, very active with two local colleges. One of them, Bucknell.

It wasn’t the college, but it was the wife’s performing arts center. And then their own particular congregation. So we had we would literally sit down every year and come up with a plan to what can they give this year? We had a contingency plan for him with a charitable remainder trust that if he would pass away before his mom, there was funding for her. And there’s some neat things we were able to do with that, but we kept postponing the start date.

You know, because as long as mom was alive and as long as he was alive. When mom passed, then we we triggered the trust at that point. So. And then in that case, he wasn’t as worried about the charitable deduction. He just wanted the money to go where it was needed.

And then at the end of the day, when he passed, he set up essentially a charitable trust, which is an endowment. And he we would every year we would review. Now what? You know what’s really touching your heart now? Is it your alma mater or is it the arts?

Is it the your church? So he would update that on a regular basis. And when he passed, there’s there’s a lot of very pleasantly surprised charities that had no idea what he was worth. But it’s an ongoing gift. And that was his biggest concern.

He didn’t want to just write a big check and see what happens. He wanted to make sure that it was a gift that kept giving. So it’s it’s going to be set up in an endowment. The right now I’m the trustee, but we’re trying to get the charities involved to as it goes on, because I don’t think I’ll be doing this forever. They’ll be able to take a look at it and change the percentages every year as to what they’ll receive, and that was really important to him.

He was an engineer at heart. So he he he knew he he knew what he wanted. And it took us 4 or 5 years to design it the way he wanted it. But it was a very telling, deliberate form of giving which you don’t see too often.

Jim Dunlop: 16:04

I bet those were fun phone calls to make after, to let those organizations know what was going on.

Mike Cherewka: 16:12

They absolutely are. We just had one this week. The a local woman, again widowed, but no children, and she passed away. And there were two smaller local charities that she had been on their boards and she was members of. And I wasn’t here.

But Michelle, my paralegal, made the calls to them literally when they found out how much they had been left. They started crying on the phone. They couldn’t believe it. They were smaller organizations. It’s going to have a significant impact on what they’re going to be able to do.

Michelle said it literally made her month, never mind her day, when she was able to make those calls.

Jim Dunlop: 17:00

Yeah. So Mike, these are these are really cool stories to hear. Any stories where somebody said, you know, I don’t want to wait till I’m gone. Let’s get started. Now we like to joke that the title of the show is You Can’t Take It With you, right?

And so whether you’re making that plan gift when you’re no longer here and no longer need the asset or, hey, let’s get this started now, any anything that comes to mind there?

Mike Cherewka: 17:27

Well, absolutely. I mean, there are some, depending on their circumstances, that you and I were discussing one before it started. We have a common why is my client but an alumni of yours and for years it was well when I passed, this is what I wanted to happen. And then he had a large event in his life, a sale, and he said, you know what? I’m not going to wait.

And he said, he called and he made a gift. And, you know, I was I got a big kick out of you describing that. The plan giving officer, when they picked up the check, their hands were actually shaking. And they try to find the closest bank because they were afraid to drive back to the target. I mean, those are they’re not as uncommon as people think.

You know, there are a lot of people that will make that gift. There was in that case, there was probably a little bit of tax planning involved because of the event. But we have seen people that once they get their own life out of the way, if you will, the like in my case, the kids are taking taken care of. You know, you get to a point where you may not have a mortgage. All of a sudden you’re beginning to think, well, why would I wait?

Why don’t I enjoy this now? We saw a lot of those, particularly with the universities or alma maters, sometimes the private high school. A lot of people will decide, yeah, I’m going to do this now. I don’t have to wait. I I’ve been blessed.

I don’t need any more money. And that usually is a gift like that. We try to encourage clients not to just make a large check unless there’s a purpose to it, but you may want to put it into an endowment, or you may want to, particularly if it’s for a smaller organization. The income flow from that may be a lot more important than just getting a really large check all at once. So we have a lot of discussions like that with donors.

Jim Dunlop: 19:40

Yeah, I think that’s a really good is, you know, that generous intent and also making sure that the recipient is receiving it in a way that’s helpful for them. You can certainly make a small organization go upside down by dumping a large gift on them without a lot of notice or planning. And so I think those are really important conversations to have as people are thinking through the impact that they want to make. Yeah. So so Mike, I’m going to ask you to speak a little bit, you know, as an attorney practicing law, you take a slightly different approach.

And one of the themes that has started to emerge as we’ve done this podcast is this idea of collaboration. And I wonder if you could just talk a little bit about kind of your approach to working with your clients, which I’ve had the opportunity to experience firsthand. It’s very refreshing, but go ahead and and share that.

Mike Cherewka: 20:36

Yeah, I think probably two aspects of that for me. I went into accounting first. So a lot of tax, a lot of finance. But in many cases we had to rely on the attorneys to help pull together the transaction. But I also got involved in a lot of sales of businesses or succession plans over the years.

And I thought it was really critical to bring in the financial advisor or to introduce the client to a financial advisor, because there’s a lot going on at that stage, and I know where my talent is, if you will. I know where I’m comfortable on the financial side, on the even the tax side these days. I know enough to be dangerous. I figured out over the years. But they called the advisors.

And the CPAs also tend to know the clients a lot longer than we do. And unless we get into some of our multigenerational clients now. But you’ve got a relationship there that’s really important. You know the client, you know the family. You know what’s important to them.

That always doesn’t come out when you’re just looking at something from a legal point of view. A lot of times I’ll say the the transaction itself or the plan itself is not always rocket science. There’s only but at the other end of it, are you really accomplishing what the client wants to accomplish and getting the input from the financial advisor? Getting the input from the tax advisor? Many times the client doesn’t think they can do it.

And then when we sit down with them and we say, well, we may not be able to do it today, but maybe three years from now or maybe five years from now, I that brings out that team approach or that collaboration approach brings so much to the table from my point of view. And we I tend to be a planner. I think I’m passing that on to to Nick and Morgan here as we go along. So we don’t look at something as a transaction or as an event. We tend to say this is going to be a long term relationship, and if we’re going to be working with this client, we really need to get to know their team.

We need to know their advisors. We all should be on the same page. The most dangerous thing, from my point of view, is I get a phone call from somebody saying, my accountant said, I need to do this. And then I’m looking at it saying, all right, well, did you talk to Jim? And you know, why are they?

Where are they coming from on this? And or the worst case is, you know, they go to a trade association meeting or a convention and they get all these ideas from the speakers. I always say bright and shiny or new and shiny, but come back, take a deep breath and put it on the table so that we want to make sure it’s consistent with what you’ve been telling us all these years. You know, sometimes people’s minds change, sometimes priorities change. But if we all are sitting down and talking about it, I feel that’s the best word that we bring to the client.

Or the best value, if you will.

Jim Dunlop: 24:13

Mike, as we were kind of preparing for today, I know we had talked a little bit. Can you tell me a little bit about some of the you I think a client in the Mechanicsburg area who was wanting to do some stuff to get AEDs in the right places. Could you share a little bit about that story?

Mike Cherewka: 24:28

Oh, yeah. Absolutely. The Peyton Walker Foundation. I mean, I’ve known Julie Walker forever. And unfortunately, she had an event in her life where where her daughter passed away from an unknown heart condition.

Julie took something positive out of that after after you can. And she has now has a foundation where she’s providing automatic defibrillators and and testing, if you will, for in many cases teenagers and athletes because they it’s amazing how many times kids you could be perfectly healthy and not know you have this and it’s a hidden condition or so the the concept of the testing and then the and then making these available. So you know, years ago you never heard about a portable unit. Now all of a sudden you see them, you know, at the gym when you go to a high school basketball game or at the football field. They’re now putting them in the public.

You could go to a coffee house, and it’s hanging on the outside of the building in the parking lot in case something happens. Literally, because that four seconds can make all the difference in the world. And Julie has been able to get the message out there. Get the awareness out there. And over the last several years in particular, we’ve been able to have a couple of fundraisers, you know, to help her along with this.

And I find it to be meaning very meaningful. I was a high school athlete. My kids were. And it’s just something that you, you know, is important, you know, to us as well as to them.

Jim Dunlop: 26:19

Well, it’s interesting to hear this part of the story, Mike. I, my kids here in central Pennsylvania compete in the Mid-penn League and every sporting event, whether it’s a soccer game. You go to in the warm up announcements, they will mention that they have an AED, compliments of the Peyton Walker Foundation. That sudden cardiac arrest is kind of a big deal, and that the trainer is ready to go in case something happens. So it’s it’s something that anybody who has a teenage athlete in this area probably has heard about and knows that there’s something there.

So that’s pretty cool. I know that another you had a client and I you can help unpack this for me a little bit whose child was on maybe on the autism spectrum and was wanting to create some business or employment opportunities for kids who were neurodivergent. Can you share a little bit about that?

Mike Cherewka: 27:17

Yeah, it’s actually the last couple of years in particular that has become more I guess we’ve become more aware of it has become more prominent for us Part of it is my wife and Nick’s wife are both speech therapists, speech pathologists, and so they’ve seen it through the school systems. And as we have become more aware of it, as people are know that we’re aware of it. We’ve been seeing more and more parents and grandparents who have children that are affected by that. And now that we’re looking for, well, what happens after school? You know, a lot of, you know, we’ve always talked about guardianships, we’ve always talked about trust.

But then there’s also what about employment opportunities? What about housing? And as those issues become more prominent or more prevalent, we’ve been able we’ve had have worked with a couple of clients. Honor, for example, over in Mechanicsburg has a It’s a coffee house. And they do.

They employ individuals, mostly kids, and I won’t say kids, but young adults in the in the coffee shop and they do some training as well. We’ve reached out to other charities in that area, and now we have parents and and groups coming to us and saying, well, what else can we do? I can’t say who it is yet, but they’re we’re we’re beginning to see a program for it would be children to play soccer, organized soccer. And the coaches will all be trained to work with this, and hopefully it will be done at no fee to the parents, so that the children will have some opportunities that they may not have been able to do before. We’ve done some work with the Special Olympics.

I think that will become, you know, more prominent again as they they’ve had a rough couple of years here, but I think in this year. But I think as they recover we’ll probably be more involved in that. But it’s a population that I think is underserved in this area. And they they my staff always says, well, you keep asking the what if. And I think as we do, ask them, what if, as these kids now are becoming young adults or older adults, there’s more and more opportunities to to make an impact here and provide some things that they may not have had available before.

Jim Dunlop: 30:06

Well, that sounds exciting, and we’ll have to kind of stay tuned to watch that unfold. So real quick, I want to highlight a couple of things here to talk about. We did talk about the Peyton Walker Foundation. Talk about the annual tap takeover.

Mike Cherewka: 30:21

Oh yeah. That is a I give my team credit for that one. We’ve worked with a local microbrewery and we were just looking for something to do. Julie. We had talked about doing some small things with Julie in the past, and the the team just came up with this idea.

Well, what if we combine that and we as a group, the team gets together and we’re the bartenders for a night. And the idea there is all the tips go to the foundation. So we’re we don’t want it to be if there’s any food purchases that goes through the microbrewery. But the idea is we we provide some entertainment, I guess, because you you have a bunch of lawyers and paralegals trying to act as bartenders and wait on tables. But the response.

Jim Dunlop: 31:19

It’s probably a good reminder to keep your day job.

Mike Cherewka: 31:21

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. And it’s the response has been tremendous. I mean, the first year was, you know, we probably had 30 or 40 people. We had over 100 people last year at the event.

And it’s as we have gotten more organized, it’s become a lot more fun. And we’ve been able to write some nice checks in support of of the foundation. Julie and her team usually come over and they participate. And it’s not only just a fundraiser, but it’s just a chance for everybody to get together and have some fun. It’s a something a little bit different for a law firm to get involved in.

Jim Dunlop: 32:02

Yeah. So I want to just highlight some of the work your team is doing. Tell me a little bit about the workshops that you do a couple times a month. Mike.

Mike Cherewka: 32:14

Okay. Yeah. We have for the general public we do workshops, estate planning. We do real estate. The corporate side.

Elder law has become a bigger and bigger part of our practice, and there’s a lot of demand for for workshops. And there are a lot of misinformation out there. So that the demand for us to put those on has become more and more. We also do the workshops for the advisors. So we’re licensed to provide continuing ed for financial advisors, for insurance advisors, CPAs, real estate brokers.

Jim Dunlop: 32:56

I know several members of our team are coming to your next one next week.

Mike Cherewka: 33:00

Yeah, thanks a lot. And and again with us, we try to bring a little bit of lightness to the room. So I think we are it might be called Happy Hour CD or something like that, where nobody wants to listen to a lawyer talk for an hour or two with nothing else going on. So we, we try to keep them fairly short, bring a social aspect to it. And really, it’s a chance for us to get to know you and for you to get to know our team as opposed to just, you know, read a PowerPoint for 45 minutes and put everybody to sleep.

So.

Jim Dunlop: 33:35

Absolutely. Well, Mike, I really appreciate you coming on today and sharing. It’s been it’s always been great to talk to you and collaborate. And I do have one final question. But before we get to that I just want to point people, if you want to find Mike or learn a little bit more about what he and his team are doing, you can find them at cherewkalaw.com that’s c h e r e w k a is how you spell Cherewka. And you can also find Mike on LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram. So Mike, my last question is if I went out and bought a billboard on a prominent highway where lots of people would see it, and you could put any message on that, what message would you like to put on that that would reach lots of people?

Mike Cherewka: 34:19

Yeah. You give me a little bit of a heads up on that one, and that is really a tough one. But that one I’m going to go back to my dad. I mean, he said something to me probably when I either first went to college or right after and it was, you know, at the end of the day, we’ll think, will people think that you left the place, the world, a better place? And that has stayed with me forever.

Jim Dunlop: 34:43

I like it, and I like that. In your work, you’re helping lots of people do that as you are doing it yourself. And I think that’s a great message and props to your dad for that one. Well, Mike, it’s it’s been a real pleasure. Thanks for being with us today.

Mike Cherewka: 35:01

Jim. Thank you so much for the opportunity. Have a great one.

Jim Dunlop: 35:05

Yep. Take care.

Outro: 35:07

Thanks for joining us to hear stories of generosity that remind us that you can’t take it with you. Visit our site at canttakeitwithyou.com for more details on today’s episode and to subscribe to future shows.

Disclosure: 35:25

Neither today’s guests nor their company are affiliated with or endorsed by Thrivent Advisor Network. The views expressed in this presentation by the guest are their own and not necessarily those of Thrivent or its affiliates.

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How Estate Planning Can Fuel Generosity With Mike Cherewka

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