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Estate-planning program designed to help nonprofits
More than half of all people in the United State who die do not have a will. That fact, coupled with the prediction by a Cornell University study that in the next two decades $30 trillion will need to be handed down as one generation passes to the next, means that a lot of people aren't giving much thought to where a whole bunch of money will go when they die.
"It's a scary figure," says Howland Swift, a Santa Barbaran who is active with the Leave a Legacy, a program whose purpose is to help charitable and nonprofit organizations develop planned-giving programs to ensure their future survival.
Swift said Leave a Legacy recognizes that many people would choose to leave a bequest to their favorite charity or nonprofit if they were aware of the need and knew how to do so. Only six percent of those who died last year had a will that left something to charity, he said.
Leave a Legacy is a nationwide grassroots effort that began five years ago in Ohio. In Santa Barbara the program, a joint effort of the Santa Barbara and Ventura Planned Giving Roundtables, kicked off a campaign last fall with media ads and a presentation to the heads of local nonprofits. There is a six-minute video about the program available to nonprofits and a speakers bureau as well.
In spite of the scary predictions, the facts that the Leave a Legacy group wants to share are very encouraging. Making a bequest can be as easy as authoring a simple will or living trust that shows specifically how you wish your possessions to be distributed after you die.
"If you don't have a will, state law dictates how to distribute your assets," Swift said. "If you don't name a charity or use similar estate planning techniques, Uncle Sam can take as much as 60 percent of your estate."
Planned giving not only helps with reducing your estate tax liability, Swift added. By creating a charitable trust, which directs that your assets be given to the nonprofit of your choice after death, you can receive an immediate income tax deducation, income from the trust during your and your spouse's lifetime and avoid all capital gains taxes if you fund the trust with appreciated assets.
Swift said bequests are already making a positive impact on the local nonprofit scene. Last year, a bequest was received by Santa Barbara City College of $500,000 from the estate of a woman who had enjoyed taking an SBCC Adult Educatiuon jewelry class. The gift was used to refurbish the school's jewelry lab.
For more information about the Leave a Legacy program, call 568-0979. |
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