How to Leave Money for a Charity in Your Estate Plan

Do you have a charitable organization you care about? You may wish to leave a bequest to this organization through your estate plan.

There are a variety of methods you can use to accomplish this while maximizing the tax benefits. Here are just a few examples:

• Direct bequests: You can use your will or a revocable living trust to directly leave a gift to the charity of your choice. You can specify a particular amount, and even the purpose for which you’d like the charity to use that money. Otherwise, if you do not have a preference for usage, you can simply make a “general purpose” donation.
• Account beneficiary: You could choose to name the charity of your choice as a beneficiary on certain types of accounts, such as retirement accounts or payable on death bank accounts.
• Charitable remainder trust (CRT): A CRT is a type of trust in which a person you choose receives annual payments from the trust over a certain period of time. After that individual’s interest in the trust expires, the remainder gets sent to a charity (or multiple charities) of your choice. There are many rules surrounding the creation of this trust and the distribution of its assets, so it’s important to work with an attorney to make sure you are able to accomplish your goals with it.

For more information about some of the methods you can use to leave money to charities in your estate plan, contact a reliable Tampa, FL estate planning lawyer at BaumannKangas Estate Law.