The task of ensuring the future of St. Joseph School rests with those who invest in the school with a vision for tomorrow. Planned giving is a way to leave a lasting legacy of support.
There are many vehicles to make a planned gift, all of which provide their own opportunities and advantages for you and St. Joseph School.
Why Give?
Drawing on the traditions of the past, living in the strength of the present and preparing for the needs of the future, St. Joseph School is a community of faith and learning that is committed to developing the integration of spiritual, moral, intellectual, physical, emotional, cultural, and social dimensions within each student.
Through participation in academic, extracurricular, athletic, and campus ministry programs, a St. Joseph School graduate will be prepared to meet the demands of higher education, to contribute to society, and to answer the call of Christian service.
St. Joseph School is embarking on an exciting time in our history; a history which spans 125 years. Our history and traditions have only grown richer over time, while our mission continues to look ahead with great momentum and vision. St. Joseph School’s success can be attributed to the enthusiastic dedication of the Felician Sisters and faculty, as well as the generous support of alumni, parents, and friends.
As we continue to look to our future, and as you plan yours, please remember St. Joseph School. With these webpages, it is our goal to keep you informed about the planned giving opportunities available to you as we look for new ways to support current and future students at St. Joseph School.
Planned gifts secure the future of St. Joseph School. Making such a gift now ensures that future St. Joseph School students will have the same opportunities to succeed as do our current students. It’s an investment that goes a long way.
A planned gift made to St. Joseph School, like most other gifts, can be restricted or unrestricted. Because of the uncertainty of the school’s future needs, donors often make their bequests unrestricted, in order to allow St. Joseph School to utilize the funds where they are most needed.
St. Joseph School was founded on the belief that any student should be able to attend our school. By making a planned gift, you are proactively planning for future students and their success.
In addition to supporting the mission of St. Joseph School, a planned gift can provide to you substantial tax advantages, especially on gifts of stocks and real estate. The total income, estate, and capital gains tax savings and the probate expense savings can come close to the amount transferred. The benefits include:
- An Income Tax Deductions
- Reduced Capital Gains Taxes
- Reduced Probate Costs and Estate Taxes
- Income for Life
Simply by taking advantage of incentives the IRS provides, you and your advisor can craft a gift that fits your needs, as well as the needs of St. Joseph School. A planned gift makes it possible for you, your loved ones, and St. Joseph School to all benefit.
We want to be sure that we can fulfill your wishes. If you have any questions, please contact:
Beth Boudreau
(508)943-0378
bboudreau@sjs-webster.com
Director of Advancement
Create Your Legacy
What comes to mind when you hear the term “estate planning?”
If you’re like many people, you know it has something to do with having a will. You’d also be correct if you said it involves making certain other types of arrangements affecting what happens once your life has ended.
A good estate plan goes further and addresses many aspects of your current situation, as well as how to thrive in the years to come. Consider this definition:
Estate planning is the process of caring for yourself and your assets while you are living, and planning for the orderly transfer of assets to other persons and organizations– both during your life and afterwards.
Why do estate planning? When you do, you can:
- Ensure the wealth you have accumulated over your lifetime goes exactly where you want it to go and when. If you don’t have a will or living trust, the state will impose a distribution plan for you, which may or may not match your wishes.
- Give directions to be followed in case you become incapacitated and can’t make decisions for yourself.
- Organize your affairs and designate who will handle them when you are gone.
- Appoint a guardian for any minor-aged children.
- Provide for any special needs your loved ones may have.
- Minimize possible estate taxes and probate fees.
- Specify the type of funeral arrangements you would like.
- Remember and provide for friends, pets, and organizations you care about but are never a part of the default state distribution scheme.
By planning, you also make things easier for your family. If something happens to you, it will already be a very difficult time for your family and other loved ones. How wonderful it will be if they know exactly what you want to have happen and have the means at hand to follow your wishes. Consider the planning you do now to be your final future gift to your loved ones.
While estate planning can entail some difficult choices and means confronting uncomfortable issues, it does provide a sense of relief and peace of mind when it is done. You’ll know that you have done your best to plan and provide for yourself and for loved ones, as well as for the causes you’ve cared about during your lifetime. There is great satisfaction in knowing what your legacy on earth will be.
The Key Elements of an Estate Plan
Related to your final wishes
- Will. A valid will is generally type written, dated, and signed by you as well as two legally competent witnesses. States differ as to the exact requirements for a valid will and whether a handwritten will, with or without witnesses, is valid. The probate court oversees administration of a valid will at death to carry out your instructions. The court charges probate fees to administer an estate and the documents and proceedings are public record.
- Revocable Living Trust. This replaces the will as the main document disposing of your property. You might hear it referred to as a “living trust” or “RLT.” The trust is created while you are living, and the power to change and even revoke it can be retained. Most often people serve as the trustee for their own revocable living trust. A living trust requires that you actually transfer your property into it for it to be effective. A living trust allows assets to pass to heirs outside of the probate process, potentially saving probate fees, and keeps your affairs private.Typically, your estate planning lawyer may suggest both a living trust to govern transfer of most assets as well as a will as a backup document to transfer the balance of your assets.
- Beneficiary Designations. Your will or living trust does not control distribution of assets such as your IRA, commercial annuities, and some other assets at death. Your IRA or annuity administrator will distribute these types of assets according to a beneficiary designation from on file with their office. These are the forms you fill out when you establish IRAs or other types of retirement plans or purchase a commercial annuity or life insurance policy. This form directs the administrator as to who will receive whatever remains upon your passing. You can also request a beneficiary designation for a bank or investment account. Since your will and living trust do not apply to these important assets, these beneficiary designations can have a profound impact on how your overall estate is distributed and should be part of any coordinated plan.
Provide for physical or mental incapacity
- Power of Attorney (POA) for financial matters. This document grants to someone you trust the ability to act on your behalf for a variety of potential transactions and responsibilities. You decide when the POA will become effective and the extent of the authority granted. A POA is only effective during your lifetime and automatically terminates at your death.
- Power of Attorney (POA) for health care decisions. This document appoints someone to make decisions for you regarding medical treatment if you are not able to do so. It allows you to specify who is in charge of making critical treatment decisions and, perhaps more importantly, who does not have that authority.
- Health Care Power of Attorney (HCPOA) for health care decisions. This document appoints someone to make decisions for you regarding medical treatment if you are not able to make these decisions for yourself. It allows you to specify who is in charge of making critical treatment decisions and, perhaps more importantly, who does not have that authority.
- Physician’s Order for Life Sustaining Treatment (POLST). This document describes what health care treatment you want in case of an emergency. You work with your doctor to document your wishes regarding resuscitation and other life sustaining procedures.
Managing and distributing your wealth
You might conceive of the estate planning process as constructing a pyramid from the ground up. Primarily, you want to do what you can to ensure your own well-being. In so doing, keep in mind that it’s not selfish to look out for yourself! Only by meeting your own needs now and in the future are you able to build the next level of the pyramid.
If you’re fortunate enough to accomplish some important basics, you’re then in a position to provide for family members and other loved ones. Thereafter, if you have the desire and the means, it becomes appropriate to think about a legacy you can leave for causes dear to you in addition to family and friends.
We hope that you will consider arranging a gift to St. Joseph School when you create (or update) your estate plan. We realize that we will never replace family members and other loved ones in your plans, and we wouldn’t want to. Part of your planning process is to consider how much to leave to individual heirs; what remains can be used to fulfill your charitable dreams and desires.
How much to leave to children and grandchildren is a judgment call. Some parents transfer as much of their estates as possible to heirs. Others fear that transferring too much wealth may discourage productivity and undermine self-motivation. A memorable line from the movie The Descendants encapsulates this debate nicely: “…you [want to] give your children enough money to do something but not enough to do nothing.” Still others realize that the community and world they leave to their children and grandchildren is also part of their legacy.
If you would like to support St. Joseph School through your will or living trust, click here for sample bequest wording you can share with your attorney. Or consider a gift by beneficiary designation also known as a “bequest substitute”. It has many of the same advantages as a bequest while being among the most tax-wise ways to give.
It’s really never too early – or too late – to do retirement planning.
On the one hand, the younger you are, the more you benefit from a longer period of time to accumulate assets and invest them, as well as think about how best to spend them once you finally retire. Even if you make some mistakes in the process or become preoccupied with other matters for a year or two, time will generally be your friend.
If on the other hand, you’ll soon be retiring or have perhaps retired already, you’ll want to use the time and resources you have wisely. Still, with a few adjustments here and there, you may well be able to make your retirement years more enjoyable.
Whatever your circumstances, be sure to consult professionals with expertise in areas such as:
- investments
- taxes
- budgeting and cash management
- various types of insurance
- estate planning
- medical, social, and other services geared toward older persons
With this in mind, St. Joseph School offers the following list of basic points to consider. Don’t forget to check out number 5 at the end of the list!
1. Determine how you’d like to spend your retirement years. Although many people travel, devote more attention to family and friends, increase their volunteer involvement, or concentrate on hobbies and leisure activities, you should feel free to settle on your own mix of passions and pastimes. Just remember that retirement can have several phases as you age, so allow for both the development of new interests, as well as the possible need to accommodate eventual changes in health and mobility.
2. Try to get a good sense of what your desired lifestyle will cost. In large measure, this will be a function not only of what you want to do but also where you live – both the part of the country (or the world) in which you choose to settle and the nature of the four walls you’ll be calling home. Recognize too that you won’t necessarily live in the same place throughout retirement. Moreover, continue to budget for things that are elements of your life currently such as personal and health care expenses (Medicare won’t cover all of them!), food, clothing, transportation, emergencies, and our seemingly constant companion: inflation.
3. Save as much as you reasonably can and invest appropriately. True, particularly if you have in mind a modest lifestyle in retirement, it’s possible to “over-save.” Yet people often underestimate – sometimes significantly – what their desired lifestyle will cost. Others may be quite realistic about what they will need but have difficulty putting enough aside over the years or fail to manage responsibly whatever wealth they have been able to amass. Whatever your situation, building your nest egg should be a high priority.
4. To the extent possible, maximize the financial resources you can draw upon in retirement. A number of options exist, among them:
Defined-benefit pensions – These are traditional pensions and even though fewer and fewer workers have this perk, it is quite a valuable one, as your employer covers the full cost and what you receive will usually be very reliable. Payments are fully taxable as ordinary income.
Defined-contribution plans – These are sponsored by employers and generally take the form of so-called qualified retirement plans, such as 401(k) and 403(b) plans, or some types of IRAs, such as SEP and SIMPLE IRAs. These plans feature limits on how much can go in each year and are typically funded with some combination of contributions made by your employer and pre-tax portions of your salary or wages. Account balances grow tax-free, but distributions are fully taxable as ordinary income.
Traditional IRAs – Depending on your level of income, traditional IRAs can be funded with your own pre-tax money or, less commonly, after-tax money. Traditional IRAs can also receive money “rolled over” on a tax-free basis from employer sponsored plans, such as 401(k) plans. Account balances grow tax-free. When distributions from a traditional IRA are taken, they will be taxable as ordinary income in proportion to the amount of pre-tax money you contributed or rolled over.
Roth IRAs – These, too, are funded with your own money, specifically after-tax dollars. This means that both earnings and distributions come out tax-free. Also, whatever remains in the account grows tax-free. Note: Some employers offer Roth 401(k) plans, although these are relatively rare.
Tax-deferred annuities – As the name suggests, the after-tax money of your own that you invest in these products grows tax-free. Any increase in value beyond the amount you invested is taxable as ordinary income when distributed.
Individually owned savings and investment accounts, certificates of deposit, etc. – These are funded with after-tax dollars, plus whatever you earn is taxable. Some of these investments produce capital gains, which are generally taxed more favorably than interest and other sorts of ordinary income.
Employment – For some people, “retirement” means continuing to work a bit longer, albeit on a part-time basis. Similarly, working full time for an extra year or two can make additional assets available for use in connection with one or more of the options above.
Social security benefits – Despite concerns about the long-run health of the social security system and the size of benefits one can count on, this extremely common form of retirement cash flow definitely needs to be taken into account.
Non-financial assets – Things that save you money can be just as valuable as a stream of payments. Examples would include good health, smart purchasing, and having loved ones nearby and available to help when needed.
Regardless of the combination of options you assemble and draw upon, be sure to seek competent professional guidance, as the tax rules (which we have simplified above) can be complex and the investment challenges considerable. For instance, decisions about things such as when to begin drawing social security payments or whether to roll retirement plan assets into an IRA will require careful planning.
5. Don’t overlook ways to support St. Joseph School that result in retirement cash flow. Especially if you are precluded from making additional contributions to your IRA or qualified retirement plan, a charitable life income plan can be an attractive supplement to existing arrangements. Here are some of your choices:
- If you are age 70-1/2 or older, you can make an IRA charitable rollover to St. Joseph School directly from your traditional or Roth IRA. Such a distribution will satisfy your annual minimum required distribution and permit a tax-free gift of up to $100,000 to St. Joseph School. Separately, drawing on assets in an IRA or a qualified retirement plan to make current gifts to St. Joseph School can sometimes make sense for anyone over age 59-1/2, although careful planning is required.
Finally, because retirement planning vehicles such as defined-contribution plans, tax-deferred annuities, and many IRAs contain income that has never been taxed, you’ll want to devote attention to your beneficiary designations. Previously untaxed amounts left to family members and other individuals will be taxed when received by them but are not subject to tax when received by charities. Likewise, tax savings can be combined with providing for heirs when certain retirement plan assets are used for a gift annuity or a charitable remainder trust at the end of your life.
Now that we’ve given you plenty to think about, please let us know if we can be of any assistance to you and your advisors!
What You Can Give
Some of the most common ways to make a gift to St. Joseph School are to write a check, make a gift using a credit card, or donate online.
A gift of cash could be right for you if:
- You want the easiest way to donate to St. Joseph School.
- You want the largest possible income tax charitable deduction for your gift.
- You would like to make the gift to St. Joseph School that has the greatest immediate impact.
How it works
You make a gift of cash directly to St. Joseph School and you receive an immediate income tax charitable deduction.
Make a gift of publicly-traded securities to St. Joseph School and save income tax and capital gains tax, too.
A gift of publicly-traded securities could be right for you if:
- You own publicly-traded securities that you have owned for at least one year.
- Some of these securities have increased in value since you bought them.
- Some of these securities may provide you with little or no income.
- You would like to make a gift to St. Joseph School.
How it works
- You transfer shares of one or more publicly-traded securities, such as stock, bonds, and mutual funds to St. Joseph School.
- The two most common ways to give publicly-traded securities are to make an outright gift of your securities or to make a gift of your securities and receive payments for life.
A gift of retirement plan assets can be a surprisingly easy way to reduce potentially very high taxes and provide support to St. Joseph School.
A gift of retirement plan assets could be right for you if:
- You have an IRA or qualified retirement plan, such as a 401(k) or 403(b).
- You do not expect to use all of your retirement plan assets during your lifetime.
- You have other assets, such as securities and real estate that you want to pass to heirs.
- You may want to provide payments to loved ones after you are gone.
- You would like to make a bequest gift to St. Joseph School.
Option 1: Make a tax-free gift today with an IRA charitable rollover
You can make an immediate tax-free gift by transferring up to $100,000 directly from your traditional IRA or Roth IRA to St. Joseph School (other qualified retirement plans such as 401(k)s and 403(b)s are not eligible). You must be at least 70 ½ years old to take advantage of this opportunity.
The benefits of an IRA charitable rollover gift include:
- Satisfing the required minimum distribution but is not included in taxable income.
- Avoiding income tax on IRA withdrawals.
- Supporting the important work of St. Joseph School with a tax-free gift.
Option 2: Designate remaining retirement plan assets for St. Joseph School
Another attractive option is to designate St. Joseph School as the recipient of some or all of what’s left in your IRA, 401(k), 403(b), or other qualified plan when it ends.
In addition to the satisfaction of making a significant gift to St. Joseph School, your benefits include:
- Making a gift completely free of federal and state taxes that can total 39.6% or more.
- Preservation of non-retirement plan assets for family.
Option 3: Designate remaining retirement plan assets for a life income plan
Alternatively, you can designate that some or all of the assets remaining when your IRA, 401(k), 403(b), or other qualified plan ends be used to fund a gift arrangement that will make payments to family members or other loved ones for the rest of their lives. When the gift arrangement ends, what is left will go to St. Joseph School.
In addition to having the satisfaction of making a significant gift to St. Joseph School, your benefits include:
- Saving federal and state taxes.
- Preserving non-retirement plan assets for family.
- Providing payments to family or other loved ones for life.
A gift of life insurance that you no longer need can be an easy way for you to provide generous support to St. Joseph School.
A gift of life insurance could be right for you if:
- Your life insurance policy is paid up or has substantial cash value.
- You have no loan outstanding against the policy.
- Your family is well-provided for by other means.
- You would like to make a generous gift to St. Joseph School.
How it works
Option 1: You give your policy to St. Joseph School.
As the policy owner, St. Joseph School will cash in your policy and use the proceeds, or maintain the policy until it ends and then receive its face amount. Your benefits will include:
- An immediate income tax charitable deduction for the value of your policy.
- No change in your cash flow.
- The satisfaction of making a generous gift to St. Joseph School.
Option 2: You designate St. Joseph School as a beneficiary of your policy.
When your policy ends, St. Joseph School will receive some or all of your policy’s death benefit, as you have designated. Your benefits will include:
- The death benefit of your policy will not be included in your estate, which may save estate tax.
- No change in your cash flow.
- The satisfaction of making a generous gift to St. Joseph School.
This option offers the additional benefit that you can change your mind about your gift at any time should circumstances in your life change.
There are many options for donating your home, second home, commercial building, vacant land, farm, or other real estate to St. Joseph School. There may be a gift plan available that will help you achieve your charitable and financial goals.
A gift of real estate could be right for you if you have any of these goals:
- You own real estate for which you no longer want to be responsible.
- You are willing to donate your home if you can continue to live in it.
- You own real estate that you are willing to sell to us for a bargain price.
- You own real estate that you are willing to donate if you get income in return.
- You want to save income taxes.
- You want to make a generous gift to St. Joseph School.
How it works
Here are some common techniques for making a gift of real estate to St. Joseph School.
- Give your real estate now.
- Give your home now, but continue to live in it as long as you wish.
- Give your real estate now and receive payments for life.
- Give your real estate through your estate.
- Give a portion of your real estate and keep the rest.
- Sell your real estate to us for less than its appraised value.
A gift of artwork, coins, antiques, or other personal property can be an excellent way to support St. Joseph School.
A gift of personal property may be right for you if:
- You own artwork, antiques, or a collection of value that you no longer want.
- You own other personal property that would be useful to us.
- You want to save income taxes or capital gains taxes.
- You would like to make a gift to St. Joseph School.
How It Works
You give your personal property to St. Joseph School. Either we put your property to a use related to our mission, or we sell your property and use the proceeds.
