Planned Giving in a Nutshell

What is planned giving?
Gift planning can be a complex enterprise when taken in its entirety, but it is really just people (givers) doing what they want with their assets and gift planners helping them do it. Our gift planners at The Ohio Historical Society can help to make this process simple and rewarding by focusing their attention on you and your family's interests and needs.

Planned giving allows a donor to make larger gifts than they thought possible. Did you know that you could make a gift that:

• pays you a dependable income for life at a better rate of return than you currently receive from CDs, bank savings accounts, and some other investments,
• provides you a charitable income tax deduction,
• reduces or eliminates capital gains or estate taxes, and
• gives you the personal satisfaction of making a gift of lasting significance to the work of the Ohio Historical Society?

What assets make good planned gifts?

Cash, securities (both publicly and privately traded stocks and bonds), unmortgaged real estate or land, IRAs, life insurance policies, and tangible personal property.

What are the most common planned giving options?

Bequests
A bequest can be made now with no impact on your current income. It can be done simply by asking your attorney to add a paragraph to your will in the form of a codicil. You can specify an amount of money, a percentage of your estate, or the remainder of your estate after you have taken care of your loved ones. You can specify that the Society would receive a bequest after your spouse, children, parents or other primary beneficiaries are provided for, or in the event they do not survive you. In addition to helping your favorite charity, your estate will receive an estate tax charitable deduction for the value of your bequest. We would be happy to work with you and your advisors to develop bequest language and an endowment description that is tailored to what you have in mind that will also benefit the Society. Learn More

Charitable Gift Annuities
A charitable gift annuity is a simple contract between a donor and a charity in which the charity pays the donor an amount for life based on the value of the gift. Learn More

Charitable Remainder Trusts
A trust is a planned gift designed to benefit both you and the Ohio Historical Society in the future. Along with an immediate income tax charitable deduction, you can assure an income for yourself (and even for another person) for life. After that, the Ohio Historical Society uses the remaining funds to benefit the Society and insure its future. There are two types of charitable remainder trusts to choose from:

• Charitable remainder annuity trust in which the income interest is fixed
• Charitable remainder unitrust in which the income interest varies with the market

Charitable Lead Trusts
If you would like to give the Society an income from certain assets for a term of years, but ultimately pass those assets to your family, you could do this with a charitable lead trust. If your estate is sizable, this plan is especially desirable because of potential savings of gift and estate taxes. A charitable lead trust can allow transfer of assets to a child or grandchild while greatly reducing gift taxes.

Life Estates
Instead of giving the Ohio Historical Society cash or securities, by deeding the property of your home, you and your spouse can enjoy retained use of your home for your lifetime(s) and receive an immediate, sizeable current income tax deduction. In a life estate agreement, the Ohio Historical Society becomes the owner of the 'remainder interest' of the estate or property. While you are living, you have legal interest in the estate.

Life Insurance
The Ohio Historical Society has two life insurance gift options:

• You can name the Society as both beneficiary and owner of a paid-up life insurance policy. You will immediately receive an income tax deduction for the paid up insurance policy's replacement value, the cost to purchase an identical policy. If the replacement value exceeds your cost basis, the deduction is limited to the basis.
  As in the case of most charitable gifts, a donor can deduct up to 50% of his or her adjusted gross income in the year the gift is made and can carry the deduction forward for up to an additional five years, if you desire.
• You can name the Society as beneficiary or contingent beneficiary of a life insurance policy. As you contribute future premium payments provide the Society with a receipt of those paid premiums and the Society will include the entire amount of the premium payment as a gift in the year it was made.

Thank you for your interest in the Ohio Historical Society!