Friday, February 19, 2010 | Last Updated Thursday, February 25, 2010 15:08 Pacific/Honolulu
Gifts at a glance
To learn about the various ways you can make a gift to support your church or church agency, please contact the Planned Giving Office.
Outright Gifts
These assets can be given outright, or can be used to fund a life-income gift.
Appreciated Securities:
Did you know that the IRS still allows you one of its most significant tax breaks for these gifts? Many donors use stocks, bonds, or mutual funds to make gifts. If they have increased in value since you obtained them, there can be significant tax savings.
Appreciated Assets:
Did you know that you can make a significant gift using business interests, artwork and collectibles? These gifts do raise more tax and acceptance issues than contributions of stocks and bonds.
Estate Gifts
Bequests:
Did you know that this most fundamental planned gift delivers critically important support to the church every year? A bequest in a will or living trust is the simplest and most common planned gift. It can be an outright monetary bequest, a percentage of your estate, a percentage of the “rest, residue, and remainder" of your estate after a number of other bequests have been fulfilled, or a specific asset such as personal or real property. For simple bequest language contact the Planned Giving Office
Gifts of Retirement Plan
: Did you know that your retirement plan can deliver more benefit to the church than to your heirs? By naming the Church as beneficiary of the remaining retirement fund assets, you can avoid income tax, plus estate taxes.
Gifts of Life Insurance
: Did you know that you can create a significant endowment from income rather than capital? You may find that you have some life insurance that you no longer need. Whole or universal life insurance has cash value and can be donated to your church. If the policy requires continuing payments, you must change ownership of the policy. The policy must be owned by the church and the church must pay the premiums. You make a contribution to the church each year in an amount equal to the premium and the church pays the premium. If you have any questions contact the Planned Giving Office.
Gifts of Real Estate
Real estate may be transferred through several means:
Outright Gift:
You may contribute residential or commercial property as an outright gift.
Charitable Bargain Sale:
You may sell the property to the church at a discount price mutually agreed upon, receiving cash for another purchase plus a charitable deduction in the amount of the gift portion.
Retained Life Estate
: You may contribute your home and retain the right to live there for your lifetime, while receiving a significant tax deduction.
Life-Income Trust
: Finally, you may contribute the property and receive lifetime income in return.
The Pooled Income Fund:
Did you know that we offer a life-income gift that works like a charitable mutual fund? You can give cash or securities, receive an income tax deduction and avoid capital gains tax on the transfer, secure lifetime income, and deliver significant support to the church.
Charitable Gift Annuities
: Did you know that our simplest life-income gift also delivers the highest annual payments and significant tax benefits for you? In return for your gift, we pay you an annuity; you receive an income tax deduction, avoid upfront capital gains tax on your gift transfer to us, and pay no income tax on part of our payments to you.
Deferred Payment Gift Annuities
: Did you know that there is a life-income gift designed to build younger donors’ retirement earnings? Deferring the start of your annuity payment until retirement or later gives you a large income tax deduction now and an additional source of income when you need it later.
Charitable Remainder Unitrusts
: Did you know that this powerful life-income gift is our most creative planning tool for donors? The unitrust pays you a fixed percentage of principal and reinvests excess income. You have flexibility in determining who will manage the unitrust, the length of the income payout and the number of income beneficiaries, and which assets will be placed into the trust.
Charitable Remainder Annuity Trusts:
Did you know that you can combine flexible management of your gift with a predictable fixed-income payout? The annuity trust is individually managed, and can pay fixed income for life or a term of years to multiple beneficiaries.
Charitable Lead Trusts
: Did you know that one of our gifts reduces the cost of transferring assets to your heirs – while delivering immediate benefits to the church? The lead trust holds appreciating assets for a term and pays the church income, then passes the principal to your survivors. This gift plan freezes the taxable value of appreciating assets, then delivers a further reduction with the present value of its income payments to the church.
Creative Real Estate Gifts:
Did you know that you can give the church your house and continue to live there rent-free, or that you can receive both cash and a charitable deduction when you transfer it? To learn the tax details and our acceptance procedures for these gifts, contact the Planned Giving Office
Writing a Will
Writing a will is essential if you want to control what happens to your family and your possessions after death. Appointing trustees and executors, naming guardians for young children and deciding how you would like your worldly goods distributed will give you peace of mind and relieve your loved ones of the burden of those decisions.
In the Episcopal Church we believe that your estate plan should reflect your values. We have a booklet, "Stewards of Thy Abundance" that provides the information you need to set up a medical directive, plan your funeral service and write your will or living trust. You can download a copy here, or call us at (808) 536-7776 extension 307, or email us with your information and we will send you a copy.