PLANNED GIVING
PLANNED GIVING 101: INSURANCE

When people hear the words "planned giving," they think of complicated trusts, several advisors and high cost. Not so!! There are some very simple and effective ways you can approach your donors, trustees and prospects about giving. The first in our series of planned giving articles, which are easy to understand and share with your donors, is on INSURANCE.

Most people know that they can make a bequest to a charity in their will. Many people do not realize how convenient and welcome a gift of LIFE INSURANCE can be to a charitable organization. A gift of LIFE INSURANCE enables a donor to write the same check, but make the funds generated by that check go much further. This is what many donors want to do and nobody is talking to them about it (leveraging their gifts).

LIFE INSURANCE enables a donor to create a significant endowment for a charity, often without giving away substantial family assets. A donor applies for a new policy, naming the charity as owner and beneficiary, and provides the funds for the payment of premiums through cash gifts to the charity, which are generally income tax deductible.

A 55-year-old woman making an annual charitable gift of $3,000 to be used as a life insurance premium could endow that charity with a $100,000 at her death! What better way to develop relationships with your donors, than to show them a simple way to do what they want to do - - continue their loving support!

By ADO member ROBBY MORRIS, Insurance and Personal Planning, The Morris Group, 914-273-6301; www.robbymorris.com; morrisrw@ft.newyorklife.com.