Planned Giving

Wills and Bequests

A bequest is one of the easiest gifts to make. With the help of an advisor, you simply include language in your will or trust specifying a gift to be made to Scouting America as part of your estate plan.  You can establish your legacy, and it remains revocable at any time during your life. For donors with taxable estates, charitable bequests are completely tax deductible when distributed. There are many types of bequests you can consider, including:

  1. General—A designated amount of money, such as “$10,000.”
  2. Specific—A certain item, such as “my 100 shares of IBM stock,” “my home at 123 Main Street,” “my original Norman Rockwell painting,” etc.
  3. Percentage—A designated percentage of your estate, such as “10 percent.” This helps protect against inflation, reducing the value of your bequest.
  4. Residuary—Gives Scouting all or a percentage of anything left after all general and specific bequests are satisfied.
  5. Contingent Bequest—Only takes effect if another bequest fails, such as “If my father should predecease me, then this should go to the Crossroads of the West Council, Scouting America.”

Many donors establish “testamentary” charitable trusts in their wills. These are just like the “regular” annuity trusts or unitrusts—the only difference is they are funded or created in your will. Also, for donors who use living trusts, Scouting and other charities can easily be included in those.

IRAs and Retirement Plans 

Retirement fund assets can be one of the most significant assets left in an estate. Unfortunately, the gift of an IRA to a child or grandchild—or anyone other than a spouse or charity—can be one of the costliest gifts of all. Retirement funds given to children or grandchildren can be double taxed, or worse. The vast majority of an IRA could be eaten up by taxes, leaving only a fraction for your intended beneficiaries.

ESTATE PLANNING  TIP

Name a spouse or charity as a survivor beneficiary | The best way to deal with IRAs and other retirement assets in an estate plan is to name either a spouse or a charity (or both) as survivor beneficiary. Naming the Crossroads of the West Council as an alternate or contingent beneficiary of your retirement accounts is as simple as requesting a change-of-beneficiary form from your plan administrator. IRAs and other retirement accounts may also be used to fund a testamentary charitable trust.

Are you age 70 1/2 or older this year?  If so, there are special IRA gift opportunities for you.

Starting in 2016, the opportunity to make tax free distributions to a charity from your IRA is now permanent!

  • Donors age 70 ½ or older at the time of the distribution, may make distributions of up to $100,000 a year directly to charities and avoid paying any tax on the distributions.
  • Younger donors who do not qualify for the tax free IRA distributions may still make contributions from their IRA. They will be taxed on the withdrawal, but are entitled to a charitable tax deduction that often offsets the tax paid for the distribution.

But please talk to your advisors – this may affect your tax bracket, it won’t work unless you itemize your deductions, etc.

As of 2017, the lifetime exclusion is $5,900,000 per person, during life OR through an estate without owing gift or estate taxes.  This goes up do $5.6 million per person in 2018. This means a married couple may transfer unlimited amounts between them, and up to $11.2 million at any time to anyone else they want (e.g. children, grandchildren, etc). For over 99% of taxpayers, this eliminates concerns about owing estate taxes upon death, and reduces the need for trusts that are used solely to avoid transfer taxes. In 2018, the annual exclusion increases from $14,000 to $15,000 per year/per person. 

Life Insurance

Do you have insurance policies no longer needed for their original purpose? Do you have a policy:

  • providing money for a spouse or children, who no longer need it?
  • covering a mortgage on a home or other property that’s now paid off?
  • covering educational expenses that no longer exist?
  • protecting a business you no longer own or that has other coverage at this point?
ESTATE PLANNING  TIP

Donate a new or existing policy to Scouting and your tax deduction is about equal to the policy’s cash surrender value. It may be beneficial to donate such policies and take the tax deduction. In general, you can also deduct any annual amounts paid to keep the policy in effect.