Understanding Your Charitable Trust Options

When it comes to an estate plan, people have different needs and desires that an experienced estate planning attorney will take into account. For those interested in protecting themselves while helping others in need, a charitable giving trust can be an important strategy in their estate plans.

Throughout Northern Illinois, individuals and families have counted on the Rockford law firm of Hardyman│DiVerde Attorneys for estate preservation assistance for over 30 years. An experienced charitable trust attorney at our firm will help you protect the valuable assets in your estate for the benefit of charities and others in need.

Call us at 815-964-8888 to discover how we can assist you in preparing your estate plan to meet your charitable giving goals.

Charitable Giving Options To Fit Your Needs

Perhaps the two most important questions for many clients looking for effective charitable giving options are:

• How can I give to the charity of my choice?
• What strategies are available for reducing my estate tax?

A charitable giving trust is an effective way to put a portion of your estate’s assets into a trust and generate an income for a charity, with the remainder going to a beneficiary upon your death. We work with investment planners to best structure charitable trusts to meet your needs, including:

• Charitable remainder annuity trusts — the income generated is a fixed dollar amount
• Charitable remainder unity trusts — the amount of income created is a fixed percentage
• Charitable lead trusts — a charity receives income for a specified time, followed by a beneficiary such as your children

Federal tax codes allow some estates exemptions over $5,000,000 dollars for charitable giving. We help establish charitable trusts that offer clients long-term tax benefits as well as meet their charitable giving or other estate planning needs, both today and in the years ahead.

In addition to establishing charitable trusts, we also assist clients with other charitable planning options, such as replacing charitable gifts with insurance policies paid for with tax savings, donating property or to medical research, and environmental groups, tax preparation for existing charitable trusts, and much more.