LEGACY GIVING
Christ Church is blessed to have such a loving and faithful congregation and to have experienced the joy of giving in the form of bequests and major lifetime gifts. Legacy gifts are a purposeful way of supporting the future ministry and mission of our church. Your estate gift can support Christ Church for decades to come. When the church or endowment receives assets as a beneficiary under a will or trust after the donor’s death, the gift is known as a “Legacy Gift.” Legacy Gifts can be made from a variety of asset classes such as
- cash
- securities
- qualified retirement plan/IRA assets
- the death benefit from life insurance
- real estate
Christ Church Endowment
The Endowment Committee, as appointed by our Trustees, manages our fund emphasizing the protection of the principal while generating reasonable gains for distribution. Endowment distributions support the ministries of Christ Church annually. Gifts to the endowment may be made during your lifetime or as a legacy gift. Unrestricted gifts are encouraged, but designated gifts are welcomed at certain levels.
I've Already Planned a Legacy Gift
USING YOUR IRA AND LIFE INSURANCE BENEFICIALLY FOR BOTH YOUR FAMILY AND CHRIST CHURCH UNITED METHODIST
The Endowment Fund Committee of CCUM respectfully offers the following suggestions for your consideration, when planning for and designating lifetime or estate gifts to Christ Church. These can have beneficial tax savings in many instances when using your IRA account, life insurance, or Will, as follows:
IDEA #1 - During your lifetime if you are at least age 70 ½, make gifts to CCUM up to $100,000 for either regular or special gifting directly from your IRA account without being taxed on those withdrawals. Further, in any year you are required by IRS to withdraw a minimum amount to avoid penalty, these gifts also will count against that.
IDEA #2 - No matter your age you can designate CCUM a death beneficiary of any selected portion of the IRA or an annuity (example 10%) with the balance going at death to your family. This 10% avoids all estate tax and income tax to you and your family. This can be changed anytime during lifetime.
IDEA #3 - No matter your age, you can designate a portion of your life insurance to CCUM as a death beneficiary. While not saving income taxes, it will reduce your taxable estate if death taxes later apply. Likewise, it can be changed anytime during lifetime.
IDEA #4 - If you are at least age 18, you can designate a portion of your estate at death (example 10%) to CCUM by a slight amendment to your Will, with the balance of the estate passing to your otherwise beneficiaries. This 10% avoids all estate tax to your family. Likewise, it can be changed anytime during lifetime.
These IDEAs of gifting are easy and inexpensive to implement and are excellent ways for you to create your family legacy at CCUM without affecting your current gifting. These gifts can be made to the Endowment Fund either generally, or for a specific purpose.
Please review these suggestions with your own tax advisors before making your final decisions. It is not intended as legal or tax advice because individual situations differ. However, feel free to contact Shannon McConnell, Executive Director of CCUM, or George Thacker, Chairman of the Endowment Fund Committee at 270-316-1565, for more information in a confidential manner. CCUM is a God Driven Church and its resources are applied for its many missions.
We encourage you to notify the Church when you include Christ Church in your estate plan using the Donor Notification Form. You will have the option to include your name in a listing of congregants who have planned legacy gifts annually in the bulletin on All Saints' Day.