Planned Giving

Planned Giving can help grow the legacy of League!

More than 30 years ago, a group of JLL members had the wonderful foresight to create the JLL Endowment Fund. Thanks to those visionaries, the JLL has received as much as $28,000 annually from the JLL Endowment Fund to support the JLL’s mission and community projects. The Junior League of Lansing Endowment Fund is overseen by its Board of Trustees who are committed to growing the Endowment Fund to provide the JLL with significant support well into the future. While fundraising, individual donations and prudent investing have grown the JLL Endowment Fund’s value to approximately $575,000, another means to grow the Endowment Fund is through planned gifts.

The JLL Endowment Fund Board has partnered with Tri-Star Trust Bank and its division, the Philanthropic Solutions Group for the investment management of the Endowment Fund and for the assistance of our members with their planned giving strategies and ideas. This provides you a contact person, John W. Kidwell Sr., VP, to consult with personally to discuss your gift ideas and then work with you and your professional advisors on the completion of your gift for the JLL Endowment Fund. You can contact John (Jack) Kidwell at Tri-Star Trust Bank by calling 989.921.0010 for this assistance. Planned giving is a loving way to grow the legacy of League!

Planned gifts are a means for individuals to use commonly accepted estate planning methods to remember those charitable entities that are near and dear to you. While there are many ways for this to occur, the following three opportunities are the most common that people use to share their charitable dollars at the time of their death.

Bequests From a Will or Trust

A bequest is one of the easiest and most widely used methods to share assets. Currently, our tax laws encourage charitable bequests as a means to minimize or eliminate federal estate tax upon your death. Bequests can be used to support the Junior League of Lansing Endowment Fund to continue the vision and mission of the organization.

There are generally three types of bequests from a Will or a Trust. They are:

  • Specific bequest – in the Will or Trust, you describe a specific item and give it to a charity. These bequests are distributed after the payment of debts and expenses are paid. Examples of bequests could be a gift of securities (X number of shares of a certain stock), a specific type of money (all amounts in ABC Bank) or property (my house).
  • General bequest – these bequests do not describe the type or source of property that the payment is to come from. The personal representative of the Will or trustee of the Trust honors the bequest from any available source in the estate.
  • Residuary bequest – after all expenses, debts, taxes, specific and general bequests have been honored, then the residuary gifts are distributed. Generally, these bequests are percentages of the residuary estate.

Beneficiary Designation on Retirement Plans

Retirement plan assets can be shared as a planned gift. These types of plans are good assets to use as testamentary gifts because the donor avoids Income in Respect of Decedent to her/his estate at death. If the IRD asset is given by beneficiary designation to a charity, the estate does not include the IRD and have to pay tax on it. The charity receives the assets and is exempt from tax so the charity gets 100% of the gift to be used for its purposes. This is important since your heirs would have to pay income tax on what they receive from you but the charity does not have that tax to pay. Generally, a beneficiary designation form will allow for the gift to be made.

Types of Retirement Plans that this works for include but are not limited to: Individual Retirement Accounts; Profit-Sharing Plans; 401(k) plans; 403(b) Plans; and Simplified Employee Pension.

Life Insurance

The unique characteristics of life insurance allow for wonderful gifts to be made to support the charitable outreach of the Junior League of Lansing Endowment Fund. There are many ways to provide insurance policies as gifts.

  • Assignment of Ownership – An existing cash value policy may be a current gift to a charity. This can be done by an assignment of the ownership of your policy to the charity that allows you to receive a charitable deduction for the gift of the policy. After the transfer, if the policy is paid up or will continue without more premium then the charity generally holds the policy until your death. You can continue the premium to the charity and receive a charitable deduction for the premium to allow the policy to grow for more value to be available for the charity.
  • Change Beneficiary Designation – You may change the beneficiary designation on an existing contract to the charity so the gift is completed at your death as a planned gift. With this method, you do not receive a current charitable deduction during life.
  • Purchase New Contract – You can apply as the insured for a new policy owned by the charity with the charity as the beneficiary. You determine the annual premium to be gifted to the charity that allows you to take a charitable deduction for this gift. The charity owns the policy, receives the increases during your life and receives the insurance proceeds at your death.