Charitable Giving

The 10 Advantages of Donating Life Insurance Proceeds

Your Gift Is Maximized. In addition to your current outright gifts, life insurance offers the opportunity to make a significant ultimate gift. Life insurance can help create a major gift that otherwise may have been unaffordable.

• Your Legacy Lives On. You get tremendous satisfaction helping your church, school, or other favorite charity. And when you give the gift of life insurance, you are assured that your support and its impact lives on. Your gift might create a scholarship fund, or help continue a program well into the future.
• Your Personal Assets Remain Intact. Using life insurance as the gift helps avoid invading your assets, which are intended to benefit and provide for your heirs. The premium can fit easily into your annual or monthly budget. (Note that you will need sufficient funds to pay the premiums to keep the policy in force.)
• Your Charity Receives The Proceeds Of Your Gift Promptly. Your gift of life insurance is not subject to probate delays or estate settlement costs.
• Your Premiums Are Income Tax-deductible.* Your gifts of premiums to purchase life insurance, if the policy is owned by the charity, are income tax deductible to the extent allowed by law. (Of course, the charity must qualify as an exempt non-profit organization.)
• The Policy’s Proceeds Are Not Included In Your Estate. Life insurance proceeds paid to the charity you name as beneficiary are not included in your estate if the charity owns the policy. Should you choose to retain ownership of the policy, the policy’s proceeds are included in your estate, but the amount paid to charity is estate tax deductible as a “charitable bequest”.
• Your Charity Has Access To The Cash Value Of The Policy. If your charity is the owner of a permanent life insurance policy, any cash value build-up within the policy is available to the charity for emergencies via policy loans, which will reduce the available death benefit.
• Your Privacy Is Private. Since the gift of life insurance is a private matter, it can be kept confidential, without being exposed to public or family view, if that is a desire.
• Simple To Arrange. Your agent can show you several ways to give the gift of life insurance, all assuring that your intentions will be honored.
• Your Insurance Gift Is Backed By The Strength Of An Insurance Company.

                                                  This educational third-party article is provided as a courtesy