Have You Considered Leaving Money to a Charity in Your Estate Plan?

Are you thinking about creating or updating your estate plan soon? As you begin estate planning with your legacy in mind, in addition to providing for your spouse and children, are you ensuring that the causes and organizations you care most about can continue even after you are gone?

By including others, in addition to your family, your estate plan may allow charities to continue. In fact, many groups such as churches, health care support organizations, and awareness causes rely on donations like yours to operate. There has been an increase in charitable bequests in the past hundred years, and most will also have a plan to make sure you are remembered for your involvement with them.

An important part of any estate plan is legacy planning. You may want to consider charitable giving if you have no family or friends to leave assets to. Who would you like to inherit from you? Your alma mater? Your church? Your local Alzheimer’s support group? Remember, without this planning, the state of Florida will determine your ultimate beneficiary.

Charitable giving is an important conversation to have with your Florida estate planning attorney with regard to your estate plan. You and your attorney can discuss together how to create a legacy that provides for the things you most care about. Whether it is through a specific amount of money you want to leave in your will or as a remainder beneficiary, you can decide how your remaining assets will be distributed. You may decide to set up a charitable trust that will disburse money throughout your lifetime, even if you were to become incapacitated, and can provide significant income tax savings each year.

Your Florida estate planning attorney will also be able to help you determine how to create a legacy. The process of leaving money to a charity may seem simple, but it is often a bit more complicated. You will need to consider and decide who to leave the money to, how to structure it, and outline the use of the money before you actually finalize your estate plan. Your Florida estate planning attorney will not only be able to create your documents in a way that puts your wishes into action but can also direct you on how to get the information you need to do it right.

Do not wait to talk to your estate planning attorney. Charitable giving is a wonderful way to leave a legacy and be able to give to others; start planning today. Our estate planning law firm takes a very different approach from what you might have come to expect. Our goal is to create lifelong relationships with each of our clients, to guide and manage your legacy for the rest of your life. Please contact our offices in Stuart and in Palm City to learn more.