Any gift to the church is the result of a very personal decision. What may encourage you to include the church in your estate planning is your commitment to the church community and your wish to see the church flourish for years to come. Many members and friends of Westminster have chosen to create a gift to support the future of the church, its mission and activities.
When is the right time?
Anytime is a good time to make a legacy gift; frequently these decisions are made in conjunction with writing a will or doing estate planning. However, a legacy gift can also be made during your lifetime when circumstances come together in a way that makes it possible for you to make a legacy gift. In one case, a member inherited a large some of money and chose to pass it to the church. In some cases, the sale of a business or property results in a windfall, which can be passed directly to Westminster, thereby avoiding any additional taxes.
Ways/vehicles for making a legacy gift
There are a variety of assets that you can choose to gift: Cash, real property, stock/securities, bonds, mutual funds, retirement accounts, and life insurance to name the most common assets. Estate Planning is not just for wealthy people! If you own something, you can likely benefit from some sort of plan or strategy. Creating an easy-to-follow plan can ease administrative burdens on your loved ones after your passing.
Donor Advised Funds (DAF): These are usually set-up during your lifetime, with a custodian and funded initially through your contribution, which is tax deductible in the year you contribute, per current IRS rules. You can the make charitable contributions out of the DAF that year or in future years; you can designate charitable beneficiaries of the DAF, in event of your death, or leave it in the hands of a custodian you appoint to continue making gifts after your death.
Charitable Trusts: There are two kinds:
- A Charitable Lead Trust is a irrevocable trust that provides distributions to one or more charities for a period of time. Then after the term ends, the remaining assets often go to family members or other chosen beneficiaries.
- A Charitable Remainder Trust is an irrevocable trust that provides distributions to one or more family members or other beneficiaries for a period of time. Then after the term ends, the remaining assets go to one of more charities
Required Minimum Distributions (RMD’s) are amounts that retirees must withdraw from their IRA annually, beginning at a certain age set by the IRS. RMDs are fully taxable income in the year taken, unless you make a Qualified Charitable Deduction. If you opt to have your IRA distributions paid directly to a charity, it then does not count as taxable income.
IRA Beneficiary: Current tax advice is to not name your spouse and a charity as co-primary beneficiaries on your IRA. Instead, If you want a certain amount of money to go to a charity with all the remainder to your spouse, set up a second IRA, for just the charity to be listed as the primary beneficiary.
Estate Gift: Assets may be left to Westminster as a part of your will. Gifts of cash will always be accepted; other gifts such as land or personal property must be approved by the Session of the Church. Estate gifts to qualified 501(c)3 organizations avoid estate tax. There is no limit on the amount that you can donate to charity.
Endowing Your Pledge: Have you thought about the hole that will be left when you are no longer able to make your annual pledge to Westminster? What would it mean if Westminster were able to continue receiving that same annual pledge year after year (even after you are gone)? We make plans for how to support our family members after our passing, but what about our church family? The costs of sustaining Westminster’s vibrant programming (community) and maintaining our historic building won’t go away, and future generations may need the support that we can provide if we will pay it forward. The Westminster Forever Fund can be the vehicle for you to leave a legacy for your church family as well. Given a long-term average return of 4 percent, a legacy gift of 25 times your annual pledge to the WFF will endow your pledge forever.
Resources/Tools to Assist You
If you have not already done so, we encourage you to consult your attorney or financial planner. Attorney Instructions with specific legal guidance are available for you to share with your attorney
We would very much like to know of your legacy giving intentions. Use one of these forms to indicate your intentions:
- Donor Form-WFF (Westminster Forever Fund): Use this form if you intend to Restrict your gift and ensure it is permanently endowed.
- Donor Form-Unrestricted: Use this form if you wish to leave your gift to one of the Unrestricted Lockwood Legacy Funds.
Whether you choose to share your name or make your gift anonymous is entirely up to you. We would like to know if you have included the church in your estate planning. While giving to the church is a very personal matter, sharing the concept of including the church in your estate planning may encourage others in the church to plan for its future. Legacy givers are recognized in the annual church report.
If you choose to participate in this legacy of giving by naming Westminster in your estate planning, please contact the Reverend Gregg Neel in the church office for further information: 503-287-1289.