Planned Giving & Bequests
Planned giving and bequests provide important support for ECF and our programs.
Planned Gifts
With careful planning, you and your financial advisor may find that utilizing planned or deferred giving mechanisms will enable your family to make a gift that benefits both the school and the donor. You may be able to receive important tax benefits immediately or for your heirs. Such vehicles include gift annuities, charitable remainder or lead trusts, retirement funds, and life insurance.
Gifts of insurance can be an efficient way to remember ECF in your estate plans without requiring a change to your will by changing the beneficiary of an existing plan to the Ethical Culture Fieldston School. If ownership of the policy is contributed to ECF, you will receive an immediate tax deduction for the cash surrender value of the policy. If you give the policy but wish to continue paying the premiums, by giving ECF the premium amount, you will get an immediate tax deduction for the cash surrender value as well as the yearly premium amount. You may also purchase a new policy to benefit the school and receive tax benefits now for a future gift to ECF.
Bequests
To ensure ECF’s commitment to ethical education and academic excellence we hope you will consider remembering ECF in your will and estate plans.
Tax Information
The Ethical Culture Fieldston School is a charitable, not-for-profit 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization. All bequests are fully deductible for estate tax purposes. Bequests to ECF will reduce the taxable portion of your estate and decrease federal estate tax liability, while giving the school the full amount of your bequest to use for mission sustaining endeavors.
Giving Assets
You may choose to give a specific bequest of a dollar amount, specific asset, or percentage of your estate. To do so, we suggest the following language:
I give ________ (provide specific dollar amount, securities, properties or percentage of assets to be bequeathed) to The Ethical Culture Fieldston School, 33 Central Park West, New York NY 10023, for its general purposes.
Designating ECF as an Alternate Beneficiary
In the event that a primary beneficiary does not survive you, it is wise to designate a contingent or alternate beneficiary. To name the school as an alternate beneficiary, we suggest the following language:
In the event that (name of primary beneficiary) should not survive me, I give ________ (state desired sum, asset, property or percentage of your estate) to Ethical Culture Fieldston School, 33 Central Park West, New York, NY 10023, for its general purposes.
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