Legacy or planned gifts offer flexible ways to extend your philanthropy beyond your lifetime and increase the impact of your giving. If you want to help build the Loaves & Fishes’ long-term financial strength and ensure that it continues to serve those in need but you are not comfortable giving a significant portion of your assets today, consider making a charitable bequest under your will or revocable trust or a gift of retirement assets.

To make a charitable bequest to Loaves & Fishes, your attorney can insert a provision in your will or revocable trust leaving to Loaves & Fishes a specific dollar amount, a gift contingent upon certain events, or a percentage of your residuary estate (what remains after taxes, expenses, and other bequests have been paid). Because it is not payable until death, a bequest does not affect your assets or cash flow during your lifetime. A bequest also is revocable—you can modify your bequest if your circumstances change.

A gift of retirement assets, including IRAs and qualified plans (a 401(k), for example), can provide a tax-efficient way to support Loaves & Fishes. Loaves & Fishes will receive the assets free of income (and estate) tax, allowing 100% of the value to be applied to the charitable purpose you designate. To make Loaves & Fishes a beneficiary of all or part of a retirement account, you simply need to complete a new beneficiary designation form from your plan administrator. (Often, this can be done online.) You can modify your beneficiary designation at any time if your circumstances change.

And, if you are least 70½ years old, you are eligible to make a Qualified Charitable Distribution (QCD) from your IRA. A distribution to Loaves & Fishes will be excluded from your federal taxable income and will count toward your required minimum distribution if you have one.

Consult your legal or tax adviser if you are interested in learning more about planned gifts in general or have questions about the options described above.