If you are over 70 years old, you can make a tax-free gift through an IRA. You can give up to $100,000 from your IRA directly to a qualified charity such as Silicon Valley Shakespeare, without paying income taxes on the contribution. This gift can also satisfy your required minimum distribution in whole or in part. It is often called the “IRA charitable rollover” or “qualified charitable distribution.” If this is something that interests you, discuss options with your financial advisor.

There are different types of trusts that can benefit charities and give you a great tax incentive. Your financial advisor or estate planning attorney can assist you in setting up a charitable lead trust that also gives you an income tax deduction now and a payout for the term of the trust while the charity uses the remaining amount or other types of charitable annuity gifts.

Leaving a specific bequest to SVS in your living trust or will is a great, simple way to support SVS through your estate. You can name SVS as a beneficiary of a dollar amount or a percentage. Contact your estate planning attorney to set this up. You will need our legal name, address, and tax ID number noted below.

There are plenty of types of assets, such as life insurance, IRAs, retirement plans, or commercial annuities where you can change the beneficiary designation at any time up to your death. You can name SVS as a beneficiary of whatever percentage of that asset you would like. The plan administrator, insurance company, or financial institution managing the policy or account will have a simple form for you to do that, using the information available on this page of our website.

A number of estate planning tools allow for estate tax deductions through charitable giving, such as through a charitable remainder trust. A charitable remainder trust allows you or your family members to have beneficial use of property and its income during the term of the trust. And at the end of the term, the remainder goes to charity. You can name SVS as the charitable beneficiary of a charitable lead trust. This is a complex structure, so be sure to consult with an estate planning attorney to see if this is a good option for you.