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Giving to a Charity through Will or Trust

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Looking for a beneficiary? Consider a charity.

Recently a client of mine said, “Mark, we know that we should have done a Will or Trust a long time ago but we haven’t because we just don’t know who I want our property to go to. We don’t have any children, we’re not especially close to any of our nieces or nephews, and we keep putting this off because we’re just not sure what to do.”

My response was along the lines of, “You’re not the first client who has had this issue. I’ve seen clients do about everything you can think of – give it to children, give it to relatives, give it to charities, and even give it to a trust to care for their pet animals. You just tell me what you want to happen, and we can almost always find a way to get it done.”

After a week of thinking about it, the client called to say, “we’ve decided to give 20% to our relatives and to divide the rest of it among different charities that we like.” I said, “no problem. You give us the names of the charities and we’ll take care of the rest.”

We’ve helped clients with a variety of charities

Over the years, we’ve helped people design gifts to a number of charities – some local, some not. One website that we have found especially helpful in finding out more about charities is CharityNavigator.com. Their website aids clients in understanding the Financial Health and Transparency/Accountability of different charities.

Charity - St. Jude
I enjoy supporting ST. JUDE’S and running in their 1/2 marathon the first weekend of December

Here’s a list of some of the charities for which we have helped our clients design gifts.

  • Jude Children’s Research Hospital
  • Humane Society of Southeast Missouri
  • Mac’s Mission
  • Animal shelters
  • Safe House for Women
  • Animal Legal Defense Fund
  • American Red Cross
  • Doctors Without Borders USA
  • Save the Children Federation
  • Environmental Defense Fund
  • Greenpeace Fund, Inc.
  • Sierra Club
  • Southeast Missouri University Foundation
  • A variety of churches and religious organizations (from Baptist to Catholic and Mormon to Unitarian)

There are some important considerations with giving gifts including how to ensure your gift goes to what you want and maximizing the tax benefits of your giving. We’re happy to help – especially when it comes to charitable gifts.

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