Maximizing a gift through your estate plan

Tom and Joan have an estate made up of the following assets:
Asset:                                                               Amount:
Home                                                              $150,000
Life insurance                                                 $100,000
Individual Retirement Account (IRA)              $200,000
Other estate assets                                        $50,000
TOTAL                                                           $500,000
 
They wish to remember their Lord’s work with a gift of 10 percent of their estate, or $50,000, after they are called home to heaven. An attorney drafts their wills with 10 percent of their estate going to Epiphany Lutheran Church. But Tom and Joan forgot that their life insurance and IRA already have beneficiary designations with everything going to family members. Therefore their church would receive only $20,000 (10 percent of the home and other estate assets) instead of the intended $50,000 gift.

Solution #1: Tom and Joan consult with their life insurance agent and financial advisor. They change the beneficiaries to coincide with their wills. Now 10 percent of the life insurance and 10 percent of the retirement accounts will also go to Epiphany, meaning a $50,000 gift will be made.

Solution #2: Tom and Joan know the government allows you to set aside money in IRAs without paying taxes with the understanding that 1) you pay taxes on that money when you take it out in retirement, and 2) when you die your heirs will pay the taxes, possibly at a higher rate.

After speaking with a Christian giving counselor and tax advisor, Tom and Joan learn that this IRA money can be distributed tax-free after they die by designating it to a charity. In this case they would do all their giving to Epiphany through their retirement account while directing everything else to their children. Because of the tax savings of this approach there might even be the opportunity to give more to the Lord or to family!

A WELS Christian giving counselor can walk you through perfecting your estate plan to maximize your giving to Epiphany Lutheran Church and your family. Call 800-827-5482 to find the counselor in your area.

The light we leave behind

Harry Lauder, a Scottish comedian, liked to describe the old lamplighter who came by his boyhood home each evening to light the gas lamps. He would light the lamp in front of Lauders’ home and then make his way, back and forth, down the street. In the deepening twilight, the lad would lose sight of the old lamplighter. “But,” he explained, “I always knew where he was by the avenue of light he left behind him.”

The train of light he left behind! Here is a parable of life. We make our way down the avenue of life, first on one side, then on the other side of the street. Sometimes we run, again we walk. Occasionally we stop to rest. But evening comes and twilight wraps its purple mantle around our shoulders. Then it is dark. But our friends, our loved ones, have an unmistakable indication of where we are going by the light we leave behind. The wise use of money, in life and in death, is but one of many ways of letting our light shine. (Robert J. Hastings)