This is the most common way to make a legacy gift to benefit The CAC. A bequest (via your Will) or a distribution (via your Trust) is a convenient way to make a legacy gift and create potential estate tax savings. The actual cost of a bequest is less than the gift’s face value because of the tax benefits realized through the charitable contribution. If you’ve already prepared your Will, a bequest to The Circus Arts Conservatory can be accomplished via a simple amendment, called a codicil.

A bequest can be created in several ways:

• A bequest of a specific dollar amount or a particular asset(s).
• A bequest of all or a portion or percentage of your estate, after the payment of all specific bequests to family and non-charitable beneficiaries.
• A testamentary trust, which takes the form of a Charitable Trust, the corpus of which will be paid to The CAC upon the death of the trust’s income beneficiary.

If you own a life insurance policy that you no longer need, you might consider a revision to your beneficiary designation form to name The CAC as the sole owner and beneficiary of the policy. You would receive an income tax deduction for the cash surrender value of the policy. If the policy is not fully paid, you may consider continuing to pay the premiums – and, in doing so, you would receive a charitable contribution deduction for the annual premium amount.

A gift annuity is a simple agreement between you and The Circus Arts Conservatory to provide you with a fixed dollar amount of income for your lifetime or the lifetime of one or two beneficiaries you name at the time you create this gift. The annual amount paid is determined by rates recommended by the American Council on Gift Annuities. As is the case with any annuity, the older the annuitant, the higher the level of income. 

A gift remainder trust operates as above. The only difference is that the income to you can vary each year, based on a percentage of the trust assets valued annually, rather than receiving a fixed amount each year.

A charitable lead trust is a creative way to use some of your excess current high income to fund annual gifts to The Circus Arts Conservatory for a period of years and at the conclusion of this period, the assets in the trust are distributed either back to you or (more likely) to beneficiaries you name, often children or grandchildren. Besides the opportunity to make a substantial charitable gift, another advantage of this kind of trust is the opportunity it offers to pass substantial assets to the next generation with little or even no tax consequences. A charitable lead trust is a creative way to fulfill a gift or pledge over a number of years while reducing estate and gift taxes that might otherwise be due on the trust assets if given outright to children, grandchildren, or other loved ones.

For donors who don’t need income now but may later; or donors who may have a more favorable income tax rate down the road; a deferred gift annuity or remainder trust offers increased income tax benefits. All of the features and benefits of a gift annuity or remainder trust are provided with this gift annuity – but, the actual distribution of the income is delayed until a future date chosen at the time the gift is created. The longer the time between the creation of a deferred gift annuity and the start of the payments, the greater the rate of return and the larger the income tax charitable deduction.

A wealth replacement trust is a method of protecting the inheritance interests of your heirs while still providing a significant charitable gift to The CAC. With this gift plan, you would contribute assets to The Circus Arts Conservatory – either outright or via a particular gift planning strategy. Using the resulting tax savings, you would then purchase a life insurance policy with your heirs as beneficiaries, thereby replacing some or all of what was given away and passing it on tax free. 

Contact Zoltan Karpathy at 941-355-9335 ext. 325 for more information about how your donations can benefit you and help sustain the mission of The Circus Arts Conservatory.