A beneficiary designation gift is an easy way to make a planned gift to support the Green Beret Foundation. You can designate us as a beneficiary of a retirement, investment, bank account, or current life insurance policy. The process is very straightforward – most banks and financial institutions will provide you with a form to complete to indicate the beneficiary or beneficiaries and their respective percentages.

This form is specific to each financial institution so it will require you to reach out and request it. Once you receive this form you simply name the Green Beret Foundation as a beneficiary. We’ve made it easy to get started with a beneficiary designation with our preliminary form that gives you specific instructions and our tax identification number to include on the official beneficiary designation form from your bank or financial institution.

Individuals can also make a gift of life insurance by making the Green Beret Foundation the irrevocable owner and beneficiary of a life insurance policy that has cash value and is no longer needed. Individual donors, in many cases, may claim a charitable deduction when gifting a life insurance policy with cash value.  You should contact your tax advisor or a professional appraiser to determine the deduction amount.

Gifting stock can often be more beneficial to individuals than gifts of cash. You can use appreciated stocks, bonds, and/or mutual fund shares that you have held long-term to make a donation to the Green Beret Foundation instead of cash. These gifts frequently help individuals avoid the tax liability on the appreciated value of the stocks, bonds, or securities. Click here to donate stock online through our complimentary tool or contact us for more information.

Many donors today are using Donor Advised Funds to optimize their tax situation while still supporting their favorite charities. These funds are set up with large financial institutions or community foundations who act as the charitable sponsor. Donors who direct gifts from these types of funds have a few options for the disbursement of any remaining funds upon their passing. One option is to designate the remaining balance of the fund to support the Green Beret Foundation. Click here to contribute DAFs

These types of gifts are also known as “life-income” gifts. They are investment vehicles that provide the donor with a fixed income for life, based on the initial value of the investment, and after the passing of the donor the remaining amount becomes the gift to the Green Beret Foundation.

A Qualified Charitable Distributions make it easier to use IRA assets, during lifetime, to make charitable gifts to the Green Beret Foundation. The QCD’s allows individuals age 70½ and older to make direct transfers of up to $105,000 per year (and up to $210,000 per year for married couples) from individual retirement accounts to qualified charities without having to count the transfers as income for federal tax purposes. So, these are “tax-wise” gifts for donors who must take an annual required minimum distribution from their IRAs. Since no tax is incurred on the withdrawal, gifts do not qualify for an income tax charitable deduction, but are eligible to be counted toward an individual’s minimum required distribution.

• Distributions must be made directly to a qualified charity by the plan administrator of an IRA. Retirement assets in 401(k), 403(b), SEP, or SIMPLE plans do not qualify but may be rolled into a new or existing IRA and transferred to the charity.
• Distributions may only be made to 501(c)(3) tax exempt organizations and cannot be made to donor advised funds, private foundations, or supporting organizations.
• Distributions may not be used to fund life-income gifts such as charitable gift annuities, charitable remainder trusts, or pooled income funds.

A charitable trust is another way to make your legacy live on for generations to come. Setting up a charitable trust can also have many tax incentives and financial benefits for those who want to set aside any high-value assets they don’t need to support themselves in retirement. By moving these assets into a charitable trust, you can avoid paying capital gains on real estate or stocks when they’re sold at a higher present value. There are two primary types of charitable trusts: charitable lead trusts and charitable remainder trusts. These trust types mirror each other but serve different needs.

– Charitable Lead Trust: This trust type first distributes a portion of its proceeds to a charity, for which you’ll receive a charitable donation tax deduction equal to those payments. The remainder of the principal is then distributed to your beneficiaries.
– Charitable Remainder Trust: With this trust type, you choose to receive an income from the distribution of the non-income-producing assets you placed into the trust first. You’ll also receive a charitable donation tax deduction based on the present value of the remainder of the assets earmarked for the charity. At the end of the term or upon your death, your chosen charity receives the rest of the assets.