Support Us
Planned Giving
After providing for your loved ones, a provision in your will to leave a gift to St. Anselm’s Abbey School will give you a great deal of satisfaction, knowing that your future gift will help St. Anselm’s students for generations to come. Gifts through wills are popular because they are both easy to arrange and can be changed at any time. Charitable bequests can include cash, securities, real estate, or other property, and may be identified specifically, as a percentage of your entire estate, or that part of your estate that remains after making specific bequests.
Making Your Bequest
Making a new will, or changing your current will should be done with the assistance of your attorney. A St. Anselm’s Abbey School advisor will be happy to provide assistance to you and your attorney.
By making a gift through your will, you will know that your generosity will touch countless generations of future students at St. Anselm’s Abbey School, assuring the availability of the highest quality education in the 1500-year long Benedictine tradition for academically gifted young men.
Retirement Funds
Often retirement funds are accumulated that neither you nor your family will ever use. For such an occurrence you may want to name St. Anselm’s Abbey School as the final (or contingent) beneficiary of a qualified retirement account, causing the funds in that account to be distributed directly to St. Anselm’s upon your death. This gift will not be reduced by estate taxes, and will support the school's mission. Your employer or retirement account manager can easily help you add or change beneficiaries.
Such an estate gift of a retirement account can benefit both you and your heirs. You will retain full control of the funds while you are alive, should you want to use them; and you will avoid paying estate tax on those funds. Additionally, by leaving estate assets other than the retirement funds to your heirs, your heirs will not be required to pay income tax on the transfer of the retirement plan.
To be sure that all pertinent regulations are followed, it is important to obtain the assistance of a qualified professional advisor. If you or your advisors have any questions, please contact the St. Anselm’s Abbey School Development Office.
Other Giving Opportunities
Living Trusts
Many people use a revocable living trust to manage their assets while they live. The trust may also continue after death, distributing assets and managing them for loved ones.
You can also make gifts to St. Anselm’s Abbey School with a living trust. You can arrange for a yearly charitable gift to St. Anselm’s out of the earnings of the trust. And, upon your death, you may simply want to bequeath all or part of the remaining assets in the trust as a charitable gift to the school as well.
Life Insurance
Quite often people find that they have more life insurance than they really need. For example, their children may be grown and life insurance that was intended to provide education funds is no longer needed. A gift of a life insurance policy, one that is paid up or one with premiums still due, makes a very good charitable gift. The gift can easily be made by naming St. Anselm’s Abbey School as both the beneficiary and owner of the policy. Normally, your charitable deduction will be approximately the cash value of the insurance policy at the time of the gift. You may even want to purchase a new policy to give to the school.
Charitable Lead Trusts
The Charitable Lead Trust is essentially the opposite of the remainder trusts. Instead of you, the donor, receiving income back from a trust, in a lead trust, the school receives the income interest for a specified number of years. At the end of the trust, the remaining principal is returned to the donor or, more commonly, another family member. The income that is paid to St. Anselm’s may be either a fixed amount (an annuity trust) or a fixed percentage of the annual value of the trust (a unitrust). At the time the trust begins, you or your estate will receive a charitable gift or estate tax deduction for the percentage payable to St. Anselm’s Abbey School.
A lead trust can be especially valuable in estate planning, because although income tax benefits of such a trust are often minimal, the estate and gift tax savings may be significant. Therefore, a charitable lead trust is often set up to begin upon the death of the donor. It may have extra value to family members when the assets are likely to appreciate substantially in value over the life of the trust.
Tangible Personal Property
Over the years, many individuals have given sculptures, paintings, book collections and other types of personal property to St. Anselm’s Abbey School.
A gift of this nature involves various regulations, and the Development Office staff can assist you and your attorney or other professional advisor, if you have specific questions or wish to discuss your particular situation in detail.
Real Estate
Appreciated real estate may be one of the best gifts that can be made to the St. Anselm’s Abbey School. From your perspective, as the property owner, the return from the property is often small and operating costs, such as taxes and maintenance, continue to rise. Should you sell the appreciated real estate, you will have to pay capital gains tax on the appreciated amount, considerably reducing your net gain from the sale. If, however, you make a gift of the real estate to St. Anselm’s Abbey School, you may be able to deduct the full market value of the property, including all appreciation.
Please note that there are some legal requirements that you will need to meet in order to make a charitable gift of real estate. The Development Office staff will be happy to assist you and your attorney or other professional advisor to comply with these requirements.