Planned Giving Opportunities

In order to encourage you as a donor to make planned gifts for the Holocaust Documentation and Education Center, Inc. (“HDEC”), we wish to offer simple explanations of key planned giving opportunities for gifting.

I. Outright Donations in Your Will or Revocable Trust

The easiest and most common form of planned gift is the bequest by will or trust of funds to the HDEC. These gifts may be bequests of a specific dollar amount, a specific asset or a percentage of your estate. To effectuate an outright donation in your Will or Revocable Trust, please either create a new Will or Revocable Trust or amend your existing documents to include a provision similar to this:

“I hereby give and bequeath the amount of $_______ to the Holocaust Documentation and Education Center, Inc. to be used for its general charitable purposes.”

or

“I hereby give and bequeath ______% of my estate to the Holocaust Documentation and Education Center, Inc. to be used for its general charitable purposes.”

II. Restricted or Memorial Gifts

Some donors wish to restrict how their planned gifts will be used. At the HDEC, we have many opportunities for memoriam gifts, endowment gifts or naming gifts. If you wish to make a planned gift in your Will or Revocable Trust that will be restricted in its use by the HDEC, we have the means to accommodate most requests. Restricted gifts come in many forms. A couple of examples are:

“I give to the Holocaust Documentation and Education Center, Inc. the amount of $100,000 to be used for its general purposes, but I direct that a plaque be placed in a suitable place recognizing this gift and noting the donors as the ________ family.”

or

“I give to the Holocaust Documentation and Education Center, Inc. ____ percent of my estate to establish a permanent endowment fund to be known as the _______ family endowment and the income from said fund shall be used on an annual basis to fund educational programs in South Florida.”

III. Donate Tax-Deferred Assets

Many prospective donors own assets that have grown in a tax-deferred environment. These include pension plan assets, 401k plan assets, IRAs, and many annuities. Upon your death, those assets are part of your taxable estate and are subject to income tax when your beneficiaries receive them. So they may face double taxation or worse (if you leave them to grandchildren and/or if you or the beneficiary live in a state with a state income tax, then there are potentially additional taxes).

As a result of these multiple levels of taxation on your tax-deferred assets, they make ideal planned gifts. For example, if you have a taxable estate and an IRA, your beneficiaries may only receive 30% of those assets while the government takes 70% or more. Instead, consider giving some or all of your tax-deferred assets to the HDEC, so we can put 100% of your assets to use in support of a cause you believe in.

To effectuate a gift of a tax-deferred asset upon your death, typically you need to obtain a “Change of Beneficiary” form and designate as the primary beneficiary: “The Holocaust Documentation and Education Center, Inc. to be used for its general charitable purposes.”

IV. Gifts of Life Insurance

Many donors perpetuate their annual gifts by irrevocably naming the HDEC as beneficiary of a life insurance policy they own. If you want to donate your life insurance to the HDEC, you will need to obtain a “Change of Beneficiary” form and you can designate as the new beneficiary: “I hereby irrevocably name as beneficiary The Holocaust Documentation and Education Center, Inc.”

Other donors seek out new life insurance policies and purchase them with the purpose of creating an endowment-type gift to the HDEC. If you need help in considering life insurance planning options, we have donors and supporters who are experts in the field and can meet with you to advise you on your options.

V. Charitable Remainder Trusts

Many donors with appreciated assets have created Charitable Remainder Trusts for tax and charitable planning purposes. Charitable remainder trusts come in two primary forms – charitable remainder annuity trusts (“crats”) and charitable remainder unitrusts (“crust”). Crats pay a fixed amount monthly or annually to you for a period of years or for life. Cruts pay a percentage of the trust assets to you monthly or annually for a period of years or for life. Both types of trusts provide you with an income stream and on your death (or after a term of years) the remainders of the assets in the trusts pass to the HDEC.

These are very popular techniques as you can contribute appreciated stock (for example) to a charitable remainder trust, receive an immediate tax deduction (based on the actuarial value of the remainder), avoid paying capital gains tax when the appreciated assets are sold, and thus have a larger investment pool working to produce for them a larger income stream. Plus, when they die, they leave a legacy to the HDEC that will perpetuate the good works of the charity.

Charitable Remainder Trusts cannot be created without the support of a qualified attorney, and the HDEC is happy to work with yours or to offer a donor/volunteer who is an expert and can help you.

VI. Charitable Lead Trusts

Charitable lead trusts are essentially the opposite of charitable remainder trusts. For a term of years or someone’s life, an annuity or unitrust interest is paid to the charity and then when the term (or life) expires, the remainder passes to your family.

These trusts are frequently used in lifetime giving, but they are also very commonly incorporated into Wills and Revocable Trusts. By incorporating Charitable lead trusts into your estate planning, you can significantly reduce the amount of estate tax your estate faces, and you can still provide for your children and grandchildren.

Like charitable remainder trusts, charitable lead trusts cannot be created without the supervision of a qualified attorney, and the HDEC is happy to work with yours or to offer a donor/volunteer who is an expert and can help you.