Making a will or a revocable trust is an important way to extend your love, care, generosity, and gratitude to family and friends. It is also a great way to support the mission of Wolf Ridge. Unfortunately, more than 60% of American adults with children have not created an estate plan.
Creating an estate plan may seem too time consuming or difficult; however, the following information gives some clear answers to some of these questions.
If you die without a will, your estate will be divided according to laws in your state of residence. The resulting transfer of your assets may be very different from what you had wished. Certain family members will receive part of your estate, but close friends or charities that you may have wanted to remember will not be included.
Only you know the special circumstances of your family members and heirs. That is why it is important to discuss these issues with your attorney. Issues to address include how you want to distribute your estate, whom you want to be executor and what charities you wish to support.
You may want to leave a gift to Wolf Ridge, talk about it with family, friends or Wolf Ridge, and then never get around to properly establishing such gifts in your estate plan. If you make this mistake, your estate will not realize the benefits of the unlimited charitable estate tax deduction, and Wolf Ridge will not receive your support. Without planning, nothing will happen!
As long as you have capacity, you can change or revoke your will, revocable trust, and beneficiary designations on retirement accounts. If situations change, you are free to alter your will with a codicil, trust with an amendment, or to change your entire plan at any time.
Please email pete.smerud@wolf-ridge.org. or call 218-353-7414, x108 for assistance.
The information on this website is not intended as legal or tax advice. For such advice, please consult an attorney or tax advisor.
Are you interested in helping Wolf Ridge achieve its mission but are not ready to write a check and reduce your assets today? A simple and flexible way to ensure that Wolf Ridge will continue to offer the highest quality environmental education for generations to come is a charitable bequest in your retirement plans, will, or revocable trust.
A charitable bequest is a provision in your beneficiary designation, will, or revocable trust that leaves to Wolf Ridge a specific item, an amount of money, a gift contingent upon certain events, or a percentage of your estate.
Retirement Accounts – Most retirement accounts, such as 401(k)s, 403(b)s, and traditional IRAs defer income tax until the assets are withdrawn. Assets are contributed before tax and the tax is deferred until they are withdrawn years later. If retirement assets are left to family, the assets will be subject to estate tax and the family members receiving the assets will have to pay income taxes when they take distributions. If your estate is large enough that it is subject to federal estate taxes, retirement assets to your family could be taxed at up to 75% when factoring in both income and estate taxes. This means your family may get as little as $0.25 on the dollar of retirement assets passing to them. Retirement assets that pass directly to a 501(c)(3) charity, like Wolf Ridge, eliminate both the estate and income tax, so the charity gets 100 cents on the dollar of the assets (tax-free).
(Downloads pdf to save to your desktop, fill out, then send to Wolf Ridge.)
The information on this website is not intended as legal or tax advice. For such advice, please consult an attorney or tax advisor.
Naming a loved one or a favorite charity (such as Wolf Ridge) as a beneficiary is a wonderful way of showing your care about the future of the organization. Make sure you go one step further and notify the beneficiaries of the choice you made.
Many charities are not aware that they have been named to receive a gift. Informing the charity helps preserve your intentions and ensures that the organization will be able follow your wishes.
We would like to add you to the membership list of The Leaders of the Pack. Please us know about your gift.
The information on this website is not intended as legal or tax advice. For such advice, please consult an attorney or tax advisor.
One thing you can count on in life is that things change. In fact, the only constant in life is that things are always changing. Therefore, it is important to keep your estate plans up to date.
How do you know if you should update an existing will with a codicil or a revocable trust with an amendment, or if you need to create a whole new estate plan?
Have your planned giving goals changed? If so, you will need to change your estate plan to reflect your goals.
The information on this website is not intended as legal or tax advice. For such advice, please consult an attorney or tax advisor.
The information on this website is not intended as legal or tax advice. For such advice, please consult an attorney or tax advisor.
Please email pete.smerud@wolf-ridge.org.
(If the link doesn’t open your email program on your device, you might need to copy the address and paste it directly into an email manually.)
