WAYS TO REDUCE ESTATE TAXES OR RECEIVE INCOME FOR LIFE
Charitable Remainder Annuity Trust
You've worked hard. Now you find yourself with a comfortable accumulation of assets. You would like an assured income for life, and want to arrange that your community will benefit from your wealth after you are gone.
You establish an Annuity Trust, with the remainder going to a charitable fund in your name. This may reduce your income taxes for up to six years. You -- and then a survivor, if you like -- will receive an income for life, the same amount each year. Your estate taxes will be reduced, and you will ultimately endow a permanent charitable fund in whatever name you choose.
Charitable Remainder Unitrusts
You would like a regular income during your retirement, but you are concerned about inflation. A fixed income might buy less and less, and, you would like to have the income increase over the years, to keep pace with inflation.
What you want is a Unitrust. This allows you to specify a percentage of your trust's assets to be paid to you each year for life, rather than a fixed dollar amount. Should your assets grow, your income will grow as well.
Reduce Estate Taxes
You have a sizable estate, one that can take care of not only your children, but your grandchildren as well. However, you worry about what will be left for them after the big bite estate taxes will take.
Setting up a Charitable Lead Trust can take care of your philanthropic interests and more. You make a donation to a trust either now or in your will, and the income goes to your fund in the Foundation for a specified number of years. When the trust ends, the assets are passed on to your designated beneficiaries. Your estate taxes are significantly reduced, your fund supports charity during those in-between years, and your beneficiaries often receive more than they would have otherwise.