Support

Making a gift in your will or living trust, known as a bequest, can help us continue our efforts and guarantee that your legacy endures. Your gift may be a specific dollar amount, a percentage of your estate, or the “remainder” after all other gifts and provisions are specified.

For an unrestricted gift that allows EL&A to choose how to use the funds based on the most pressing needs, use the following language for your will and/or trust:

If you wish to make a gift for a specific purpose or type of work, you can also specify that. Please email bequests@seniorlaw-sd.org to discuss the wording of your bequest or for more information.

Instead of making a gift in your trust or will, naming EL&A as a full or partial beneficiary of an IRA, qualified retirement plan account, bank or brokerage account, or life insurance policy is another easy, straightforward way to make a substantial charitable gift, without costing you anything now. Those gifts do not pass through your will or trust, but come directly from the account holder.

Any beneficiary designation with the account holder controls the distribution of the account or the policy death benefit. Instructions in a will or trust will have no effect if there is a different named beneficiary in the institution’s records, so designating EL&A as a direct “pay on death” beneficiary for an account should be done with the institution itself, not just in your own papers.

The plan or account administrator, bank, brokerage, or life insurance company can supply a change of beneficiary form for you to complete. A charitable beneficiary designation is the simplest way to donate any of those assets. While this can be done for any bank or brokerage account, it works particularly well for tax-deferred retirement accounts such as IRAs or 401k plans, because a charity like EL&A, unlike an individual, does not have to pay the accrued income taxes on withdrawals after you are gone.

If you want to make a charitable gift now but are concerned about future income, there is a tax-advantaged way to meet that goal: a charitable gift annuity (CGA).

The CGA is a contractual agreement between you and the charity in which you make a gift to EL&A (typically of something with a large capital gains tax liability if you sold it yourself). EL&A, in return, provides a lifetime income stream to one or two people you designate. An annuitant receiving the income must be a living person (not a trust, corporation, LLC, or charity), and the payments must be made for life, not for a term of years or a specified number of payments. EL&A would be happy to work with your accountant, attorney, or financial advisor to explore this type of gift.