Page 11 - Jewish Foundation Ways to Give

SENSIBLE AND SIGNIFICANT
Gifts from Qualified Retirement Plans
One of the largest assets in your estate may be your retirement plan, such as a 401(k), IRA, or Keogh. You may be surprised to learn that retirement plan assets left to children, grandchildren and any non- spouse beneficiary, is subject to income tax and may be subject
to estate tax on top of that. This could mean the beneficiaries of these assets will end up with less than 30 cents on the dollar. If the beneficiary is a surviving spouse, it may be possible to defer the start of payments and the resulting income tax, but ultimately all of the distributions from the retirement plan, whenever they occur and to whomever they are paid, are taxable to the person receiving them.
There is a sensible charitable alternative. You can name the Jewish Foundation as the beneficiary of all or part of your retirement plan, then use other assets, not subject to income tax, to make gifts to your heirs. The Jewish Foundation of Greater New Haven, as a qualified 501(c)(3) organization, won’t pay income tax on the distribution, and your heirs will receive their share of your estate without the burden of extra taxes.
“I remember in my late twenties, my dad was
asked to be on board of the JCC,” Larry explains.
“He’d started to wind things down, and he
suggested that I step in instead. So I joined the
JCC board—and my own commitment to our
community began and was shared by many
other family members in a variety of institutions.
This involvement is consistent with the path my
father created for us, which we’ve embraced from day one.”