Anyone, regardless of age, wealth or affiliation, can leave a legacy.
You can provide support for one or more organizations. Your legacy gift of any size can be customized and structured to fit your dreams, lifestyle, family and financial needs. Contact Sonya Aronowitz at 215.832.0574 or legacy@jewishphilly.org for more information.
options include:
A will is the most popular way to make a legacy gift. You can make a gift through a will or trust for a specific amount or percentage of your estate. If you are planning to make an after-lifetime gift to a specific purpose, talk to the organization before finalizing your will.
You can establish a new policy or change the beneficiary designation on an existing policy naming the organization(s) you care about to receive the death benefitTo qualify as a legacy gift, the insurance policy must be whole life or another type of permanent policy. This is a simple, easy way to make a gift that does not require you to change your Will or trust.
The Jewish Federation also offers another option, where you establish a new policy naming Jewish Federation as the owner and beneficiary of the policy, and each premium payment qualifies for a charitable income tax deduction. The insurance program helps leverage your charitable dollars to create a much larger endowment when you pass away. The beneficiary designation can designate the proceeds go into an endowment fund at Federation for the benefit of one or more Jewish organizations.
Retirement funds (IRA, 401(k), 403(b)) are especially popular simple and tax-efficient ways to give to charity.
The assets have beneficiary designations which can be updated to name your organization as a beneficiary of a percentage, dollar amount, or the entire balance of the account remaining after your lifetime.
Retirement accounts are heavily taxed when left to heirs, making it a very desirable asset to give to charity, since charities do not have to pay income tax.
These assets pass outside of a Will, so you do not need an attorney to make this gift.
Consider making your organization the beneficiary of the remaining assets in your donor advised fund, commercial annuity, or bank and investment accounts.
Make a payment of at least $10,000 and in exchange receive fixed, guaranteed income for life for one or two people aged 55+. When you pass away, the remainder passes to charity. Rates are based on the age of the annuitant(s).
At the time you make your gift, you receive an income-tax deduction based on the present value of the remainder that will eventually pass to charity, and a portion of your lifetime payments are free of income tax. Jewish Federation staff can prepare a gift illustration and help you set up a gift annuity to benefit your intended charity.
With a charitable remainder trust, income is paid to you and/or your loved ones for life or for a specified number of years, after which the charity receives the remaining trust assets. You can create a charitable remainder trust during your lifetime or to take effect at your death. When you create the trust, you receive a current charitable income tax deduction based on the present value of the remainder interest that will eventually pass to charity. If you use appreciated stock to create the trust, you avoid the capital gains tax you would pay if you sold the stock yourself. Once the trust holds the stock, it can be sold and invested in a diversified portfolio.
Jewish Federation staff can prepare gift illustrations for the following types of trusts. For these types of trusts, we generally recommend that you consult with an attorney and have a minimum investment of $1 million.
There are two types of charitable remainder trusts:
Charitable Remainder Annuity Trust (CRAT)
A charitable remainder annuity trust is a trust that annually pays you a fixed percentage of the initial value of the trust, for life or a term of years. The annual annuity payment will always be the same. Unlike a Charitable Gift Annuity, however, payments are not guaranteed.
Charitable Remainder Unitrust (CRUT)
Like the CRAT, the charitable remainder unitrust annually provides payments to you or other beneficiaries for life or a term of years. Payments from the unitrust are calculated annually as a fixed percentage of the value of the trust assets; the amount of your payment will vary from year to year. You can add assets to the unitrust at any time.