Creative Ways of Giving
To leave a legacy is a rare and special gift, it is the perfect opportunity to help others after you are gone. Mercy Care has a long-standing reputation with area physicians for providing excellence in care to patients and their families.
A life-threatening illness can affect anyone regardless of job, social status, race, or age. Mercy Care staff sincerely care about their patients and their families. They work tirelessly towards comforting patients who are nearing the end of their journey and providing emotional support and bereavement services to the families and children that are left behind.
Remembering Mercy Care in your estate planning is the perfect way to ensure that you will continue to make a difference to suffering patients who have no health insurance or who are under-insured. Care is provided to all patients in need regardless of background, race, or religion.
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Click here to download and print an outline of the information provided: Chart of Creative Ways to Give
Memorial Gifts: A Lasting Tribute
A gift given in honor of someone special is a lasting tribute to the important part he or she plays in your life. Plus, it is a wonderful way to establish a link with the past and promote a vision for the future.
Many forms of charitable giving can become memorials. Current, outright contributions as well as gifts made through a will are common; but other alternatives—such as endowing an annual gift, now or through your will—can also be effective.
Creating a memorial gift is a personal decision that you will probably want to make in consultation with those close to you. We would be happy to assist in formulating a plan that will honor your intentions and help you to realize the maximum advantages from such a contribution.
Benefits
- An outright gift can include an immediate income tax deduction and reduction of estate taxes
- By giving long-term appreciated property, you avoid capital gains tax
- The legacy you create often inspires others to support our charitable mission
Year-End Giving: Time Your Gift For Maximum Benefits
The feeling of success and the act of giving are inextricably bound together. As each year draws to a close, people become more aware of what they have accomplished and how they would like to share with others. Careful planning of year-end gifts allows you to do more for others and still improve your own position both today and tomorrow.
You aren’t limited to giving us cash at year-end. A quick inventory of your estate can provide all sorts of potential gifts—real estate, life insurance policies, retirement plan assets, etc. However, timing your gift is important if you itemize deductions and want to take full advantage of this year’s tax-saving opportunities.
The real benefit you receive from a gift to us is the personal satisfaction of making a commitment to further our charitable mission. Without the generous support of our donors, many of our important goals would not be realized.
Benefits
- Receive an immediate income tax deduction in the year you make the gift
- May reduce your future estate taxes
- Avoid all capital gains tax on outright gifts of appreciated property
- Create an income for yourself and possibly another with a trust arrangement
The Rewards of Creative Giving: Design A Plan That Fits Your Needs
As we continue in our work to educate Horry County about the benefits and availability of palliative and hospice care, we know that the generosity of those who assist us will make all the difference in our success. That’s why we seek your support, but we also want to make sure that you benefit from making a gift to Mercy Care.
How does this happen? Of course, you have the satisfaction that comes from knowing you’ve made a difference in the lives of others but in fact, the best gift plans also improve your financial and tax situation, often right away.
To design a gift that benefits the people and organizations you care about most, we recommend that you obtain the professional counsel of an attorney who specializes in gift and estate planning. An attorney can help you plan for tomorrow and receive maximum benefits today.
Benefits
- Current income tax deductions
- Avoidance of long-term capital gains tax
- Increase in income and effective rate of return
- Reduction in estate and gift taxes
What To Give: Assets Worth Donating
Any type of asset that you irrevocably donate to a charitable organization such as Mercy Care results in a current income tax deduction, but there may be other tax benefits to your contribution as well.
Giving cash is the simplest method but if you contribute appreciated securities to us that you have held more than one year, you have the added benefit of owing no tax on the gain.
You can also give tangible personal property (such as an art object, prized collection, or antiques) and take a deduction for its full market value if the gift is related to our exempt function.
These are but three of the types of assets you can donate outright for Mercy Care to receive immediately or you can use them to fund a planned gift that gives you a lifetime income before we receive the gift.
There are even more potential benefits if you plan your gift creatively.
Benefits
- Gifts of cash result in a current income tax deduction
- Gifts of securities also provide relief from capital gains tax
- Donations of personal property allow for meaningful gifts
- All contributions to us are used to help fulfill our mission
A Living Trust: Keep Control of Your Assets
A living trust lets you provide for yourself and your family before and after your death. It has a built-in flexibility that can work very well with your overall estate plans, because it allows you to stay in control of your assets.
Like will, living trusts are fully revocable, so you can change or terminate them at any time during your life. Unlike wills, the terms of a living trust can be put into effect immediately.
You can also arrange a contribution through a living trust by naming Mercy Care as the ultimate beneficiary. This method of giving is attractive because you retain complete control of the assets during your lifetime.
Benefits
- You or a beneficiary receive the income from the trust assets
- You’re in charge but a professional trustee may do the detail work
- You name who will ultimately receive the trust remainder
- The trust assets bypass probate, so the terms are private
- Assets in the trust are removed from your probate estate, so estate expenses may be less
A Current Will: A Vital Document
A bequest in your will lets you pass any amount you wish to Mercy Care free of estate tax. You can give cash or specific property, a dollar amount or a percentage of your estate, with restrictions or without.
To make sure you will accomplish your goals according to your wishes, we recommend that you obtain the professional counsel of an attorney who specializes in probate and estate planning.
Benefits
- Lets you provide for your family after your death
- Allows you to distribute your assets according to your wishes
- Saves on estate taxes, with proper planning
- Lets you leave a legacy without giving up assets
Life Insurance: A Versatile Tool For Many Purposes
When you first obtained your life insurance policies, you were responding to a need you felt at the time but perhaps you don’t need all that coverage today. Yet, you still have those policies.
If you’re thinking about a contribution to Mercy Care, a gift of your life insurance could be a sensible as well as generous course of action.
You can also use life insurance to replace the value of a different gift. For example, you could donate stock because of the tax advantages and purchase life insurance to benefit your heirs in the amount they would have received had you left them the stock.
Benefits
- Charitable deduction when you name us beneficiary and assign us ownership
- Flexibility through naming Mercy Care beneficiary but keeping ownership
- Security for your family by naming Mercy Care as contingent beneficiary
- Reduction in estate taxes because proceeds are removed from your estate
Retained Life Estate: An Option That Lets You Have It Both Ways
Let’s assume you like the tax advantages that a charitable gift of real estate would offer, but you want to continue living in your personal residence for your lifetime. You can give Mercy Care your home, even though you continue living there.
It’s called a retained life estate. A gift of your home, farm, vacation home or condominium, even with stipulations about occupancy, results in a charitable deduction on your income tax.
The retained life estate may also provide you with a way to let someone other than you or your spouse (perhaps a sibling or child) have life occupancy of your home with reduced tax obligations.
Benefits
- Lifetime use of the residence for you and/or another person
- Income tax savings through charitable deduction
- Estate tax savings for you and/or another person (if the other person is your spouse)
- Ability to gift only partial interest in property and receive tax advantages
Charitable Remainder Unitrust: A Gift With Built-In Flexibility
A charitable remainder unitrust is like a combination of a gift to Mercy Hospice and an investment plan. You place assets in trust and you (and/or another beneficiary) receive lifetime income from them, then Mercy Care receives the remainder.
With a unitrust, the amount you receive as income is a set percentage of the value of the trust assets, redetermined annually.
You also have the option of choosing one of five variations of unitrusts. A unitrust with a net income plus markup provision, for example, pays only the actual trust yield, even if it is below the stated percentage. Then in later years, when performance is better, those deficiencies are made up.
This option is excellent for devising a supplemental retirement plan.
Benefits
- Lifetime income (often greater than your previous yield
- A sizeable income tax charitable deduction
- Avoidance of capital gains tax if you donate appreciated securities
Example:
Donor
Mr. Williams, age 60, has stocks currently valued at $100,000 and yielding a 2 percent dividend.
Gift Method
Charitable remainder unitrust
How It Works
Mr. Williams transfers the stock to the unitrust and arranges to receive in quarterly payments 7 percent of the unitrust assets as determine annually. After Mr. Williams’ life, Mercy Hospice receives the remainder.
Benefits
- Mr. Williams receives an income tax charitable deduction. The first year he receives $7,000 (7 percent of $100,000), a $5,000 increase in income
- If the value of his trust increases, so will his income payments, so Mr. Williams will have a built-in hedge against inflation
Charitable Remainder Annuity Trust: A Gift To Us With Predictable Benefits To You
If you are disappointed in the yield from your current investments in the stock and bond markets, yet you want to avoid the capital gains tax should you sell, a charitable remainder annuity trust may be the answer.
This plan will pay you, year after year, the same dollar amount you choose at the onset. The income payments are fixed, based on the starting valuation. Then after your lifetime (and the lifetime of a surviving beneficiary, if desired), the trust remainder is available to support our mission.
The charitable remainder annuity trust is more than an eventual gift to Mercy Hospice. It is a way to unlock highly appreciated assets, because you receive an increased income from your donation.
Benefits
- A fixed dollar income paid annually, semiannually, or quarterly
- Immediate charitable deduction
- A way to increase income from a low-yield holding
- Freedom from investment management
- Avoidance of capital gains tax on appreciated assets used to fund the trust
Charitable Lead Trust: Preserve An Inheritance
Are you concerned about the possibility of the government taking a substantial part of the assets you were planning to leave your heirs?
There’s a way to pass assets to your family with significant estate tax savings while at the same time making a gift to Mercy Hospice and Palliative Care. It’s called a charitable lead trust.
After we receive income from assets in the trust for a period of years, the principal goes to your family, with estate or gift taxes usually reduced or even eliminated.
The lead trust is an exceptional way to transfer property to your children or other heirs at minimal tax cost. It’s ideal if you’re willing to forgo investment income on an asset but don’t want to force your heirs to surrender the principal.
With a lead trust, you carry out your philanthropic plans over the coming years and save on taxes.
Benefits
- Can be funded during your lifetime or through your will
- You support our mission through annual income payouts
- Reduces your taxable estate and potential gift taxes
- Assets can be kept in the family
Charitable Gift Annuity: A Way to Boost Your Rate Of Return
The concept of a gift annuity is simple. You donate assets, which we reinvest. We agree to make fixed payments to you for life (and if desired for another beneficiary’s lifetime). Then the funds are available for our use.
Benefits
- Lifetime payments for yourself and possibly another person
- Charitable deduction for a portion of the value of the gift
- Part of the annual payments is considered a tax-free return of capital
- Capital gains tax savings when you contribute appreciated securities
A charitable gift annuity is particularly attractive because the rates (based on your age) typically produce higher payments than the yields from investments in the stock and bond markets. When this aspect is combined with partially tax-free payments, the effective rate of return is even higher.
Information courtesy of The National Hospice Foundation. The NHF was founded in 1992 to broaden America’s understanding of hospice through research and education. At hospice’s core is the belief that each individual has the right to live with dignity and without pain during the last stage of life. You can visit them at:
The National Hospice Foundation