Addressing money, mortality, and family relationships can be challenging on their own, let alone together. Many people delay setting up or updating estate plans, considering it expensive or inconvenient. However, establishing a will, trust, and beneficiary designations is a valuable gift to heirs, sparing them stress during an already emotional time. Updating your estate plan also enables you to allocate gifts to charities upon your death.
Supporting charities through beneficiary designations in an estate plan is common. When working with advisors, review insurance policies and retirement plans, particularly tax-deferred ones like 401(k)s and IRAs. While spouses are typically primary beneficiaries, consider a charity, such as your fund at the Community Foundation, as a secondary beneficiary for tax-efficient and streamlined gifting, avoiding both estate and income tax on plan distributions.
Connect with the Community Foundation team during estate planning to:
1. Explore tax benefits of naming your fund as a retirement account beneficiary.
2. Obtain bequest language for your will or trust, accurately describing your fund.
3. Update donor advised fund terms so that your wishes are carried out following your death,, whether specifying charities or naming successor advisors.
Estate planning documents, including wills, trusts, and beneficiary designations, represent generous acts of clear distribution and conflict avoidance. An estate plan allows you to demonstrate how much you care about the people in your life as well as your charitable passions.