Other Ways to Contribute

By designating the Mission as a beneficiary in your retirement plan (such as a 401k or IRA), you can reduce income and estate taxes while making a gift to reach the least, the last and the lost in your community. Contact your retirement plan’s administrator to complete a beneficiary designation form. These forms can be updated at any time without the legal steps needed to execute a will.

Bequests are the traditional way to make a legacy gift. A bequest in your Will, or a distribution from your Trust, is a convenient way to leave your lasting legacy and create potential estate tax savings. If you have already prepared your Will, a bequest for the Westminster Rescue Mission can be accomplished with the addition of a simple amendment, called a codicil, and can be created in several ways:

• A specific bequest of a particular dollar amount or particular assets
• A residuary bequest of all, or a portion or a percentage, of your estate, after the payment of all the specific bequests to non-charitable beneficiaries
• A contingent bequest to take effect if primary beneficiaries die before you
• A testamentary trust, which takes the form of a Charitable Remainder Trust, the corpus of which will be paid to the Westminster Rescue Mission upon the death of the trust’s income beneficiary

If you own a life insurance policy that you no longer need, you can consider a revision to your beneficiary designation form to name the Mission as the sole owner and beneficiary of the policy. You will receive an income tax deduction for the cash surrender value of the policy. Some donors use the tax savings to replace the life insurance with other assets that will be distributed at death to family members as part of their inheritance.

For younger donors, a deferred gift annuity offers increased income tax benefits. All of the features and benefits of a gift annuity are provided with a deferred gift annuity – but, the actual distribution of the income is delayed until a future date, chosen at the time the gift is created. Talk to your tax or financial planning professional for more information about deferred gift annuities.

A charitable lead trust is a creative way to use some of your assets to fund annual gifts for the Westminster Rescue Mission for a period of years, or for your lifetime. At the conclusion of this period, the assets in the trust are distributed either back to you or to the beneficiaries you name, often children or grandchildren. A charitable lead trust can fulfill a gift or a pledge over a number of years while reducing estate and gift taxes that might otherwise be due on the trust assets if given outright to children, grandchildren, or other loved ones. Talk to your tax or financial planning professional for more information about charitable lead trusts to benefit both the Mission and your loved ones.