| Charity and Estate Planning |
| Charitable instruments in estate planning can benefit you during your lifetime, as well as benefit charitable and noncharitable beneficiaries upon your death. |
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| There are many possible ways to including charitable gifts in your estate planning. |
A charitable gift annuity can benefit you by providing you or your designated beneficiary with an income stream during life, with the principal passing as a gift to the charity upon your death. It may also offer income tax benefits. | |
| Some individuals with charitable intentions can leave all or a portion of retirement accounts to charitable beneficiaries, to make charitable gifts out of "pretax" dollars and avoid unnecessary taxation of beneficiaries. |
| Large charities have a wide variety of gifting programs and staff to assist you and your legal counsel in exploring the best way to incorporate charitable gifts into your estate plan. |
| Some of the menagerie of options: Charitable Lead Annuity Trust (CLAT) - the charity receives an annuity for a designated period, with the principal passing to your beneficiary at the end of the period. Charitable Lead UniTrust (CLUT) - the charity receives at least a certain percentage of a trust's value during the designated period, rather than a fixed amount, with the remainder to the beneficiary at the end of the period. Charitable Remainder Annuity Trust (CRAT) and Charitable Remainder UniTrust (CRUT) - the beneficiary receives income during the period, with the charity receiving the remainder. There are many, many more variations and possibilities... |
| Charitable techniques can be used to discount future gifts to you chosen (noncharitable) beneficiaries, providing money to the charity and reducing the amount of estate tax payable, while deferring enjoyment of the gift by the beneficiary for a determined period of time. |
| If you plan to leave a substantial amount for charitable purposes, you have the choice of donating during your lifetime or by bequest to existing organizations or by creating your own charitable organization if there is not an appropriate recipient among existing charities. |