Planned Giving

Bequests are the traditional way to make a legacy gift for your favorite cause. A bequest (via your Will) or a distribution (via your Trust) is a convenient way to make a legacy gift and create potential estate tax savings. The actual cost of a bequest is less than the gift’s face value because of the tax benefits of the charitable contribution. If you’ve already prepared your Will, a bequest for HELP of Beaufort can be accomplished with the addition of a simple amendment, called a codicil. A bequest be created in several ways:

• A specific bequest of a particular dollar amount or particular assets
• A residuary bequest of all, or a portion or percentage, of your estate, after the payment of all the specific bequests to non-charitable beneficiaries
• A contingent bequest to take effect if primary beneficiaries die before you
• A testamentary trust, which takes the form of a Charitable Remainder Trust, the corpus of which will be paid to HELP of Beaufort upon the death of the trust’s income beneficiary

To learn more about bequest giving to HELP of Beaufort, contact our Philanthropy Department at (843) 524-1223.

If you own a life insurance policy that you no longer need, you can consider a revision to your beneficiary designation form to name HELP of Beaufort as the sole owner and beneficiary of the policy. You will receive an income tax deduction for the cash surrender value of the policy. If the policy is not fully paid, you can consider continuing to pay the premiums – and, in doing so, you will receive a charitable contribution deduction for the annual premium amount. Some donors use the tax savings to replace the life insurance with other assets that will be distributed at death to family members as part of their inheritance.

To learn more about designating a life insurance policy to HELP of Beaufort, contact our Philanthropy Department at (843) 524-1223

For younger donors, a deferred gift annuity offers increased income tax benefits. All of the features and benefits of a gift annuity are provided with a deferred gift annuity — but, the actual distribution of the income is delayed until a future date, chosen at the time the gift is created. The longer the time between the creation of a deferred gift annuity and the start of the payments, the greater the rate of return and the larger the income tax charitable deduction.

To learn more about giving to HELP of Beaufort through a Deferred Gift Annuity, contact our Philanthropy Department at (843) 524-1223.

A charitable lead trust is a creative way to use some of your assets to fund annual gifts for your favorite charity (HELP of Beaufort) for a period of years, or for your lifetime. At the conclusion of this period, the assets in the trust are distributed either back to you or to beneficiaries you name, often children or grandchildren. Besides the opportunity to make a substantial charitable gift, another advantage of this kind of trust is the opportunity it offers to pass substantial assets to a next generation with little or even no tax consequences. A charitable lead trust is a creative way to fulfill a gift or pledge over a number of years while reducing estate and gift taxes that might otherwise be due on the trust assets if given outright to children, grandchildren, or other loved ones.

To learn more about establishing a Charitable Lead Trust to benefit both HELP of Beaufort and your loved ones, contact our Philanthropy Department at (843) 524-1223.