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Different Plans for Different Needs: The Basics of Legacy Gifts

Estate planning is a powerful tool for taking care of your partner, family, friends, and community well into the future. Planning for the future is, inherently, a profound and powerful expression of you, your values, and your life, and including a charitable bequest in your estate planning is a far-sighted and generous act.

Estate planning is also just smart, especially for the LGBT community — we can’t count on traditional methods of taking care of loved ones. When done carefully, estate planning can significantly reduce the administrative costs and tax liability associated with distributing your property after your death. Thoughtful estate plans allow what you’ve accumulated over a lifetime to go where you want it to go, rather than defaulting to the government’s plan.

    
If I'd died in 1979 and left my estate to an organization that couldn't respond to HIV/AIDS, I would have missed an opportunity to fund the most pressing need of a changing community. Because we can't know what's coming, we need a place - an institution like Horizons - that can use its resources in ways we can't foretell, to respond to both the challenges and the victories.

— D A V I D   G L E B A
Legacy Circle member
 

  

Different Plans for Different Needs

Horizons Foundation offers several ways for you to make legacy gifts:

Wills and living trusts. When you designate Horizons Foundation as a beneficiary in your will or living trust, you can choose to leave a percentage of your estate, a fixed amount, or a residual bequest (the amount left after specific gifts to your loved ones or charity have been made).

Charitable remainder trusts. This leveraged giving vehicle is designed to reduce taxes on highly appreciated stock, real estate, or other assets. You can transfer assets into an irrevocable trust (during your life or at death), which then generates income for yourself and/or for the lifetime of your partner or other heir(s), or for a specified number of years. At the end of the period, the remainder goes to Horizons.

Charitable lead trusts. A charitable lead trust is an especially useful tool in taxable estates. Assets that would otherwise be subject to a hefty estate tax are invested so that the income goes to Horizons, offsetting much of the tax liability. After a period of years, the principal transfers back to your heir(s) with little or no tax owed.

Retirement plans and life insurance. Naming Horizons as the beneficiary of your life insurance, 401(k), 403(b), IRA, or other retirement plan is a powerful way to provide for the LGBT community. It can also offer significant tax benefits, particularly on retirement plans: while your heirs would face both estate taxes and income taxes, often leaving them only a fraction of the original amount, the money would pass as whole dollars to a nonprofit like Horizons.

Securities. A donation of appreciated stock, mutual funds, bonds, or other appreciated assets is a effective way to maximize your charitable gift while minimizing the tax burden on your estate and eliminating capital gains tax.

Real estate. Gifts of real estate—particularly in the Bay Area—can provide significant resources to Horizons and the LGBT community, while offering you benefits such as reducing your income tax liability, avoiding capital gain taxes on the property’s appreciation, and relieving you or your executor of the burden of selling the property.

To learn more about how planned giving can make a critical difference for you, the people you love, and your community, please contact Deb Stallings at 415.398.2333 x103 or dstallings@horizonsfoundation.org.

 
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