Beneficiary Designation

A beneficiary designation is one of the simplest ways to make a gift to the Trinity Center for Spiritual Living. It’s literally as easy as filling out a form.  

You can specify the individuals and charities you want to support and you can also specify the percentage of the assets you want each beneficiary to receive. Beneficiary designations are available when giving the following assets: 

Retirement Assets
You could name the Trinity Center for Spiritual Living as the beneficiary of your retirement assets. This gift is simple because you can control the transfer of these assets at your transition without changing your will or living trust. All you need to do is request (and complete) a new beneficiary designation form from your plan administrator. There is no need to modify your will or living trust.

A gift of retirement assets has the added advantage of being among the most tax-wise ways to make an estate gift. This is because your retirement assets, if left to individuals, will be subject to income tax when they receive distributions and, in the case of most non-spouses, those distributions must take place within 10 years, potentially pushing designated beneficiaries into higher tax brackets. With a gift to a non-profit such as TCSL, 100 percent of the funds are available for its charitable purposes. If you want to remember us in your estate plan, it is often better to leave other types of assets – cash, securities, real estate – to your heirs and give the more heavily taxed retirement asset to the Trinity Center for Spiritual Living.

Life Insurance
Life Insurance policies can also be used to make a gift to the TCSL. Complete and return to the insurance company a form designating that the Trinity Center for Spiritual Living receives all or a portion of the death benefit associated with your life insurance policy. As an alternative to naming the TCSL as the beneficiary, you can transfer ownership of the policy. Transferring ownership results in an immediate income tax charitable deduction and potential income tax savings in the year of the gift.

Other Assets
Commercial Annuity Contracts – a commercial annuity will sometimes have a remaining value at the end of the annuitant’s lifetime. You can name the TCSL to receive all or part of this amount by designating it as a beneficiary (sole or partial) on the appropriate form from the insurance company.

Bank Accounts – you can instruct your bank to pay the TCSL all or a portion of what remains in a checking or savings account. Your bank can provide you with the appropriate beneficiary designation form.

Investment Accounts – you can instruct your investment company to transfer to the TCSL some or all investments held in the account at the time of your passing. Your broker or agent can let you know the process for doing this – it may be as simple as adding “T.O.D. to  Trinity Center for Spiritual Living” after your name on the account.

If you would like to step into the flow of your legacy today, you can donate stocks and bonds to the Trinity Center for Spiritual Living. There are substantial tax benefits to making a gift of stocks and bonds to the Trinity Center for Spiritual Living Legacy Program. TCSL recommends you reach out to your financial advisor to determine how a gift of stocks and bonds may have a tremendous benefit on your tax-liability and capitol gains tax.

Once you are ready to gift stocks or bonds to the  Trinity Center for Spiritual Living Legacy Program, TCSL has provided an easy way for you to make your gift. Simply select the Cocatalyst button below to process of gifting your stocks or bonds.