Plan ahead to leave a legacy of hope

With a planned gift to Partners In Health you can help to secure the future of PIH while accomplishing your own personal financial and philanthropic goals. 

What is Planned Giving?
Planned giving is the process of arranging for gifts to Partners In Health during your lifetime and/or at your death, based on your wishes and goals, and designed with your particular family and financial situation in mind. 

Ways to Make a Planned Gift

There are numerous ways for donors to achieve their financial and charitable goals, benefiting themselves, their loved ones, and the larger community.  

Basic Lifetime Gifts

You many already directly support Partners In Health through gifts of cash or stock and these gifts are invaluable to us. PIH counts on the generosity of our donors for the resources to fund our programs around the world.

Include PIH in Your Estate Planning:
Help Support our Future
Putting a planned gift to PIH in place is a way of perpetuating your support for PIH and securing its future--such an important goal, given the crucial work that remains to be done.  This goal can be accomplished in a variety of ways: 

• Bequests in Your Will
  A simple method for providing for the future of PIH is to leave a bequest in your will.  A bequest is an instruction that a certain amount of money or particular item of property should be given to PIH at your death. A bequest to PIH will not be subject to estate taxes, so the entire amount of the bequest can be used to advance the work of PIH.
  
  A bequest can take a number of forms:
• A stated dollar amount
• A percentage of your estate
• A particular piece of property
• The remainder of your estate after the payment of specific legacies to others
  
  
• Naming PIH as Beneficiary of Life Insurance or a Retirement Plan
  How your your life insurance and retirement benefits are to be paid is not specified under your will but rather by beneficiary designation. That means that you do not need to amend your will to direct these assets to PIH.  As with a direct bequest, you can name PIH as the beneficiary of a dollar amount, a percentage, or the remainder of these benefits, after the shares of other named beneficiaries.
  
  
  • Life insurance.  You simply need to ask your life insurance agent for a copy of the current beneficiary designation and a change of beneficiary designation form to make PIH a beneficiary of life insurance proceeds upon your death.
  • Retirement benefits.  As mentioned above, directing a portion of your estate to PIH eliminates any estate tax on the property to be received by PIH.  An added benefit to directing retirement benefits to PIH is the elimination of the income taxes that would otherwise be payable by the recipient of these benefits.  A non-charitable beneficiary receiving a $100,000 IRA may receive less than $40,000 in after-tax dollars, once estate taxes and income taxes are paid on the IRA.  If that $100,000 IRA is payable to PIH, all $100,000 can be used to advance the work of the organization.
    
    
• Current Gift of Life Insurance Policies
  People often purchase life insurance when their children are young and their mortgages are high, and keep on paying the premiums on these policies even after they no longer need the life insurance for its original purpose.  If you have an unneeded life insurance policy that has some cash value, consider making a current gift of the life insurance policy to PIH.  You will be entitled to a charitable deduction on your current income tax, based on the value of the policy. PIH can surrender the policy for its cash value, or if you wish to continue paying the premiums, these payments would be tax-deductible gifts to PIH as each payment is made.  When you die, PIH would receive the life insurance proceeds free of estate and income tax.
  
  
• Current Gift of a Remainder Interest in a Residence
  If you want to continue living in your residence or enjoy your vacation home, but would like the property to pass to PIH at your death, an alternative to a bequest in your will is to transfer a remainder interest in the real estate to PIH now, while retaining the right to exclusive use of the property for the rest of your life. Not only will the value of the residence at your death pass to PIH with no estate or capital gains taxes, but you may be entitled to a significant income tax deduction for the value of the gift of the remainder interest.  This income tax deduction can shelter some of your current income from income taxes, and you can be recognized by PIH for this current gift.
  
  
  • Charitable Remainder Trust. For clients with low income tax basis assets, a charitable remainder trust can provide for deferral of the income taxes on the sale of those low basis assets, permitting you to diversify your investments for your own benefit for your lifetime or for a term of years. At the end of the term, whatever is left in the trust can pass to PIH.  A current income tax charitable deduction is available when the trust is funded.
     
  • Charitable Lead Trust. This type of trust, which can be funded during lifetime or at death, provides for annual payments in a fixed amount to PIH for a term of years, after which the remaining trust property can pass to family or other loved ones as you decide.  Since PIH receives payments before your loved ones, reduced gift and estate taxes can make this an attractive vehicle for simultaneously accomplishing family and charitable goals.

Supporting Partners In Health by making a planned gift ensures that our work will continue well into the future. Planned gifts provide a unique way for donors to fulfill charitable and personal financial objectives at the same time. Learn about new tax incentives for making IRA gifts in 2006/2007 or other gift planning options by contacting Ed Cardoza at 617-432-0049 or edcardoza@pih.org. 

We urge you to consult your legal and financial advisors when considering a planned gift.