Childhood Cancer Awareness Month: Celebrating Our Little Fighters

Beneficiaries of your Retirement Plan or your IRA

Designate CHRISTUS Children’s Foundation as a beneficiary of part or all of your qualified retirement plan or your IRA. Normally, the assets held in an IRA or qualified retirement plan will be subject to both income and estate taxes, but if you name CHRISTUS Children’s Foundation as a beneficiary of a percentage (or all) of your plan, that portion will pass to CHRISTUS Children’s Foundation, free of income or estate taxes.

Payable on Death Bank Account Designation

Designate your bank account to be payable on death (POD) to CHRISTUS Children’s Foundation. There is no change in ownership, control, or benefit from this account while you’re living. The POD designation causes whatever funds that remain in the account to go to CHRISTUS Children’s Foundation at your death.

Transfer on Death Brokerage or Investment Account Designation

Designate your brokerage or investment account to be transferable on death (TOD) to CHRISTUS Children’s Foundation. It’s not necessary for the TOD designation to transfer all of the account solely to CHRISTUS Children’s Foundation. You can designate percentages of the account to pass to additional beneficiaries. To set up the transfer on death endorsement, contact your investment advisor and provide the instructions regarding the change.

Bequests to CHRISTUS Children’s Foundation

Include a bequest to CHRISTUS Children’s Foundation in your will. You can make your bequest unrestricted or direct it to a specific purpose. You may even indicate a specific amount or percentage of the balance remaining in your estate.

Benefits

• Your assets remain in your control during your lifetime.
• You can modify your gift to address changing circumstances.
• You can direct your gift to a particular purpose (check with us to make sure your gift can be used as intended).
• Under current tax law, there is no upper limit on the estate tax deduction for your charitable bequests.

Planning Tip

If you express your gift as a percentage (e.g., “20 percent of the residue of my estate”), you can maintain the same relative gifts to charities and your heirs, regardless of changes in estate value. If you’re considering designating your gift for a specific purpose, such as research, special programs, or support for a specific department, contact us to ensure that we understand your wishes.

Sample Bequest Language

You may wish to share the following sample language with your attorney:

Unrestricted bequest

“I give (a specific dollar amount/a specific asset, or percentage of the rest, residue, and remainder of my estate) to the Trustees of CHRISTUS Children’s Foundation, located in San Antonio, Texas, for its general tax-exempt purposes.”

Bequest for a specific purpose

“I give (a specific dollar amount/a specific asset, or percentage of the rest, residue, and remainder of my estate) to the Trustees of CHRISTUS Children’s Foundation, located in San Antonio, Texas, to be used for the following purpose (state the purpose).”

NOTE: If you wish to restrict your bequest to a specific purpose or program at CHRISTUS Children’s, please contact us in advance to assure that the language you include will accomplish your wishes and align with CHRISTUS Children’s Foundation’s needs.

Endowment funds for a restricted purpose

If your bequest will be used to establish an endowed fund for a restricted purpose, we recommend that you and your counsel consider adding a “saving clause” to your bequest provision. A “saving clause” is a way to ensure the usefulness and relevance of your bequest in the future as CHRISTUS Children’s Foundation’s needs and priorities change. For example:

“If, in the future, it is the opinion of the Board of Trustees at CHRISTUS Children’s Foundation that all or part of the income of this fund cannot be usefully applied to such purpose, it may be used for any related purpose which, in the sole opinion of the Board of Trustees, will most nearly accomplish my wishes.”

Fixed Payments for Life

A charitable gift annuity allows you to gain the security of fixed payments for life, receive a tax deduction for a portion of your gift, and make a gift to CHRISTUS Children’s Foundation that you may not have thought possible.

• Income for Life
• Eliminate Investment Risk
• Charitable Deduction
• Capital Gains Benefits
• Tax-advantaged Income
• Secure Payments

Fixed Payments for Later

If you don’t need income right away, you can obtain both a higher payout rate and a larger charitable deduction by establishing a deferred charitable gift annuity. A deferred gift annuity provides you with fixed payments for life that begin when you need them and an immediate tax deduction for a portion of your gift. The minimum for establishing a charitable gift annuity with CHRISTUS Children’s Foundation is $10,000.

• Income for Life
• You Control When Income Begins
• Charitable Deduction
• Capital Gains Benefits
• Tax-advantaged Income
• Secure Payments

Variable Payments that Can Grow

Charitable remainder unitrusts allow you to make a gift of cash, stock, or real estate, receive a tax deduction for a portion of your gift, and receive variable payments from your unitrust for life or a term of years. The minimum for establishing a charitable remainder unitrust through CHRISTUS Children’s Foundation is $100,000. Future additions to the trust can be made in any amount. The minimum for establishing a charitable remainder unitrust through CHRISTUS Children’s Foundation is $100,000. Future additions to the trust can be made in any amount.

Gifts of Publicly Traded Securities

Giving publicly traded shares of stock, bonds, or mutual funds to CHRISTUS Children’s Foundation allows you to turn an appreciated asset into support research and special programs.

You’ll receive a charitable income tax deduction for the fair market value of your gift, and as a qualified non-profit, CHRISTUS Children’s Foundation can then sell the stock without having to pay capital gains tax. All the proceeds from the sale will be used for the charitable purposes you specify.

Gifts of Closely Held Stock

Do you own your own business? It’s also possible to give closely held stock to CHRISTUS Children’s Foundation. If you own your own business, the stock in your company has virtually no cost basis, making it subject to significant capital gains when you’re ready to sell.

While potentially very tax-advantaged, gifts of closely held stock are not without their complexities and require thoughtful consideration on the part of all parties including: the shareholder, the company issuing the stock and CHRISTUS Children’s Foundation.

Make a Tax-Free Gift from Your IRA

If you’re 70 ½ or older, each year you can instruct your IRA administrator to transfer all or part of your required minimum distribution (up to $100,000) directly to CHRISTUS Children’s Foundation and avoid paying the tax had you taken it as income.

An IRA rollover allows you to make a gift to CHRISTUS Children’s Foundation directly from your IRA, pay no taxes on the transfer, and count the gift toward your required minimum distribution.

How You Benefit

A charitable IRA rollover makes it easier to use IRA assets, during your lifetime, to make charitable gifts.

• Your gifts count toward your Required Minimum Distribution but do not count as income for federal income tax purposes.
• If you’ve already used up your charitable deductions or don’t itemize your deductions, you can still make gifts through tax-free IRA transfers.
• You can use tax-free IRA rollovers to make any kind of outright gift, including annual fund gifts, research initiatives, pledge payments, and gifts to special programs or other endowed funds.

An individual taxpayer’s total charitable IRA rollover gift cannot exceed $100,000 per tax year.

Gifts of Real Estate

Using real estate to make a gift allows you to turn an asset into support for CHRISTUS Children’s Foundation, receive a charitable income tax deduction, and potentially avoid paying capital gains taxes.

Gifts of Retained Life Estate

By contributing your home, while retaining the right to live in it for life, receive a tax deduction for a portion of your gift, and continue to use your property while you are living. The minimum gift for establishing a retained life estate with CHRISTUS Children’s Foundation is $100,000.

Donor-Advised Fund

Designate CHRISTUS Children’s Foundation to receive all or a portion of the balance of your Donor-Advised Fund (DAF) through your fund administrator (you also can make a grant to us at any time from your donor-advised fund). The balance in your DAF passes to CHRISTUS Children’s Foundation when it terminates.

Gifts of Retained Life Estate

• You can direct your gift to a particular purpose (be sure to check with us to make sure your gift can be used as intended).
• Maintain flexibility to change beneficiaries if your needs change during your lifetime.

Grantor Charitable Lead Trusts

A grantor charitable lead trust allows you to claim an income tax deduction based on the present value of the future annual payments to CHRISTUS Children’s Foundation, and retain the principal when the trust’s term ends.

Charitable Remainder Unitrusts

A charitable remainder unitrust allows you to donate cash or appreciated assets and receive payments based upon a percentage of the trust’s annual value. When the value of the trust increases, so do your payments and your gift to CHRISTUS Children’s Foundation. Your donation qualifies for an immediate tax deduction, and you save capital gains taxes.

Flip Unitrusts

A flip unitrust allows you to donate illiquid assets, such as business interests or assets earning little or no income, like undeveloped real estate, and receive an immediate tax deduction. The value of those assets appreciates in the trust tax-free. When the assets are sold, saving capital gains taxes, the trust “flips” to a conventional charitable remainder unitrust and begins making payments to the beneficiary.

Family Trust

A family trust also is called a charitable lead trust because the charity takes the “lead” in receiving payments for a period of time with the remaining assets, plus appreciation, going to members of the next generation when the term of the trust expires. The donors pass the trust assets to heirs at reduced transfer tax cost.

Make CHRISTUS Children’s Foundation a Beneficiary of Your Life Insurance

Making a gift of life insurance allows you to transfer ownership of a paid-up life insurance policy to CHRISTUS Children’s Foundation. CHRISTUS Children’s Foundation elects to cash in the policy now or hold it.