Giving Through a Charitable Remainder Trust

Funded with Retirement Plans or Any Other Assets

You can name a charitable remainder trust (CRT) as beneficiary on your retirement accounts. This works for people who want to pass on their retirement plans at death. (The donor can use other assets as well to fund the trust.) The trust then provides regular payments to family members for a specified period of years. It is based on a predetermined percentage of the annual value of the trust.

At your death (or a surviving spouse’s death), your retirement funds (example: $100,000) pass into a CRT by beneficiary designation. This will save estate and income taxes.

The WELS Foundation manages the trust with payments going to your heirs (for example: five percent of annual value per year for up to 20 years* = $5,000 per year).

At the end of the 20th year, the remainder of the CRT goes to the area of the Lord’s work you wish to support (example: GPLHS).

Benefits include:

There is no income tax due on amount transferred to trust.
A charitable deduction is made available to the estate.
Your family heirs over 20 years will receive back the approximate amount you placed in trust.*
At the end of 20 years, your gift to the Lord’s work may be greater than you thought possible.

* This example assumes a 20-year trust and adequate investment performance.

Charitable Remainder Trust (CRT)

(At end of the entire description (including the *Note), insert what’s written below. This will remove two items from your “Give Later” list, thereby simplifying the list, combining related items together under one heading, and finishing off that section of the GPLHS Website)

There are two ways to receive payments with charitable remainder trusts:

The annuity trust (CRAT) pays you, each year, the same dollar amount you choose at the start. Your payments stay the same, regardless of fluctuations in trust investments.

The unitrust (CRUT) pays you, each year, a variable amount based on a fixed percentage of the fair market value of the trust assets. The amount of your payments is redetermined annually. If the value of the trust increases, so do your payments. If the value decreases, however, so will your payments.