Featured Article

Using Charitable Remainder Trusts to Meet Your Goals
Posted August 2007

Life presents many of us with similar challenges: managing investments, preparing for retirement, providing for the needs of family members, and choosing the best way to benefit Drexel. These challenges may seem mutually exclusive, but a charitable remainder trust may offer you the ideal vehicle to simultaneously meet these separate financial and philanthropic goals.

Trusts that make lifetime payments to specified beneficiaries and ultimately benefit charity are known as charitable remainder trusts. Your payments come out of-and are secured by-the trust assets. The trust is set up either for the life or lives of the named beneficiary or beneficiaries or for a specified term of up to twenty years.

You may fund your gift with cash, appreciated securities, and in some cases real estate-the choice depends on your specific goals. In addition, your gift qualifies for a substantial charitable income-tax deduction.

Meeting Your Goals with Charitable Remainder Trusts
		Charitable Remainder Annuity Trust	Charitable Remainder Unitrust	Charitable Remainder Flip Unitrust
1.	You want to fund your gift with cash or appreciated securities.
2.	You want to fund your gift with real estate.
3.	You avoid capital-gain tax on the initial transfer of appreciated property.
4.	You need current fixed income.
5.	You want a gift vehicle that provides variable income which might act as a hedge against inflation.
6.	You want to provide income for someone else.
7.	You want a charitable income-tax deduction.
8.	You want to make additional contributions in the future.
9.	You want to make a gift now to generate a charitable income-tax deduction, but you don't want to receive income until a future date (perhaps when you retire).
10.	You would like to receive income for life or a term of years (up to 20).
11.	You would like to provide income to others for life or a term of years (up to 20).
12.	You want income to be paid to yourself or the beneficiaries you name for a combination of life and a term of years.
13.	You want to make a significant gift to us.

Exactly how a charitable remainder trust might benefit you depends on your goals and circumstances. We would welcome the opportunity to discuss your situation in depth to see how a charitable remainder trust can work for you.

Please contact us if we can be of any assistance in this process.

Previous articles