What is The CAC Legacy Society?
The CAC Legacy Society members share a spirit of generosity and a strong commitment to the future of The Circus Arts Conservatory. The CAC Legacy Society honors those individuals who have ensured that The CAC and its outreach programs continue for generations to come.
The Circus Arts Conservatory has established The CAC Legacy Society to celebrate and thank those individuals who share our vision. Should you choose to include The Circus Arts Conservatory in your will or other estate plans, we would be honored to know of your intentions and have you as a member of our Legacy Society.
Members of The CAC Legacy Society will not only be recognized in our publications and on The CAC website but will also receive a CAC Legacy Society lapel pin. As another way to show our appreciation, CAC Legacy Society members will be invited to attend events throughout the year as our special guests.
Joining the Legacy Society requires two steps.
Becoming a Legacy Society member is as simple as remembering The CAC in your will or estate planning, considering a charitable gift annuity or perhaps a distribution from your IRA retirement account.
Charitable bequests are among the simplest and most flexible ways to donate.
First, submit the Legacy Form informing us of your intentions to include The Circus Arts Conservatory in your bequest. Second, complete the Bequest Notification Form substantiating your confidential wishes of your bequest. The agreement is non-binding and does not constitute a legal promise of any future donation to The Circus Arts Conservatory.
Please send the completed forms to:
The Circus Arts Conservatory
Attn: Development/Philanthropy Dept.
2075 Bahia Vista Street
Sarasota, FL 34239
These forms are also available at The Circus Arts Conservatory Development office.
Leaving a gift is easy.
Bequests from a will or trust are the most common way to leave a gift to The Circus Arts Conservatory. Some people set aside a certain dollar amount. Others leave a percentage of the estate or assets left over after providing for their family. Others have made The Circus Arts Conservatory the beneficiary of 401K/IRA plans or insurance policies, or have established a Charitable Gift Annuity or a Charitable Remainder Trust to The Circus Arts Conservatory. All qualify a person or couple for membership in The Legacy Society.
Your gift will be completely confidential. We will not ask the amount being left to The Circus Arts Conservatory. You are, however, encouraged to discuss your gifts with us to make sure we comply with your wishes. If you would like to let us know the name you would choose for your Fund and your plans for its distribution, we will file this information confidentially. You can be assured that your plans will be followed exactly as you have outlined them to us. Your instructions to us can be changed at any time with a simple phone call to the Development office.
Finally…Thank you.
Through The Legacy Society, we recognize the people who are planning gifts today that will provide significant benefits to The Circus Arts Conservatory in the future. Because of the generosity of people like you, The Circus Arts Conservatory will be able to continue to provide innovative, quality and caring program services today and tomorrow for individuals with disabilities and special needs!
Contact Zoltan Karpathy, VP of Philanthropy, 941-355-9335 x 325 or email Zoltan@CircusArts.org for more information about how your donations can benefit you and help sustain the mission of The Circus Arts Conservatory.
You can make a difference, and we hope you will join us.
BEQUESTS
This is the most common way to make a legacy gift for your favorite charity. 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 actually 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 for the Circus Arts Conservatory can be accomplished via a simple amendment, called a codicil.
A bequest be created in several ways:
- A specific bequest of a particular dollar amount or particular assets.
- A residuary bequest of all or a portion or percentage of your estate, after the payment of all the specific bequests to non-charitable beneficiaries.
- A contingent bequest to take effect if primary beneficiaries die before you.
- A testamentary trust, which takes the form of a Charitable Remainder Trust, the corpus of which will be paid to the Conservatory upon the death of the trust’s income beneficiary.
LIFE INSURANCE
If you own a life insurance policy that you no longer need, you might consider a revision to your beneficiary designation form to name Circus Arts 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. In some cases, donors use the value of the tax benefits to replace the life insurance with other assets that will be distributed at death to family members as part of their inheritance.
CHARITABLE GIFT ANNUITY
A gift annuity is a simple agreement between you and the charitable organization to provide you with a fixed 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.
CHARITABLE LEAD TRUST
A charitable lead trust is a creative way to use some of your assets to fund annual gifts for your favorite charity for a period of years (or for your lifetime) 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 a 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.
DEFERRED GIFT ANNUITY
For younger donors, a deferred gift annuity offers increased income tax benefits. All of the features and benefits of a gift annuity are provided with a deferred 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.
WEALTH REPLACEMENT TRUST
A wealth replacement trust is a method of protecting the inheritance interests of your heirs while still providing a significant charitable gift. With this gift plan, you would contribute assets to Circus Arts – 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.