What Will You Do with Your Unspent Retirement Savings?

Michael and Kelly were retired engineers with two adult children. They owned a home, some stocks, and IRAs. They met with their financial advisor to discuss a plan to provide for their family, and for some of their favorite charities.

Kelly: We both had a lot of money in our IRAs, which was more than we could ever use. We wondered if we could pass this on to our children.

Michael: Our advisor explained the problem with giving our retirement savings to our family. He said a majority of the gift would be taxed. We didn't want our children paying any more in taxes than they already pay.

To alleviate their concerns, Michael and Kelly's advisor created a plan that stipulated their stocks and home go to the children. He then recommended a bequest of the retirement assets be used to establish a charitable fund at the community foundation. The community foundation can then receive all the assets from Michael and Kelly's IRAs tax free, allowing Michael and Kelly to give back to their favorite causes and charities now and forever through their charitable fund.

Michael: It was easy to make a bequest from our IRAs to help our favorite charities. We filled out the online forms on our custodian's website that permitted us to allocate percentage shares to the community foundation.

Kelly: This plan met all of our goals. We liked the fact that our children could immediately sell the house and stocks with little or no tax due. We were also happy to help some worthy organizations continue their good work.

Is this gift option right for you? Call your advisor or contact us.

*Please note: The name and image above is representative of a typical fundholder and may or may not be an actual donor to our organization. Since your benefits may be different, you may want to click here to view an example of your benefits.