Gifts from Your Will or Living Trust

Purple and pink sunset on Kenai River, framed between dark trees by akwildland.com

Legacy Gifts are an especially meaningful way to help the Alaska Conservation Foundation for generations to come. What are Legacy Gifts? They are charitable contributions that enable your passion for preserving Alaska to continue on after you are gone. The most widely chosen method of leaving a legacy gift is to remember ACF in your will or living trust.

A Bequest in Your Will or Living Trust

There are many ways to leave a bequest to ACF in your will or living trust:

You can define a specific dollar amount,
You can specify a percentage of your overall estate,
You can leave the residual amount of your estate after all other specific bequests and obligations are met,
You can name ACF as a contingent beneficiary, having assets pass to the Foundation if another beneficiary should not survive you, or
You can leave a particular asset such as securities, real estate, life insurance, retirement account, or valuable personal property.

Your bequest to ACF, in addition to helping to keep Alaska wild, also qualifies for a range of tax benefits depending upon the nature of the assets that you donate as well as the size and complexity of your estate. In most cases, if your estate is subject to estate taxes, your estate can benefit from an estate tax deduction. If you are transferring IRA or retirement plan assets to ACF, your estate may be able to benefit from income tax savings.

Don’t Give Your Family Tax-Cursed Assets

When considering which assets to pass on to family and which to give to charity through your will or living trust, be sure to work with legal and financial advisors who can help you weigh the benefits and the burdens associated with each asset. For instance, if your estate includes both retirement plan assets and appreciated stocks and bonds, consider contributing the retirement plan assets to charity and the appreciated securities to loved ones. Retirement plan and IRA assets passing to anyone other than a spouse or charity will be subject to one or more taxes, in some cases reducing the value of the assets by as much as 70 percent. Appreciated stocks and bonds, however, can in most cases be passed to loved ones, with the security receiving a “step up in basis” that removes any capital gains tax burden.

Special Considerations with Real Estate

Real estate can be a great asset to considering leaving to ACF, which can sell it and use the proceeds for our conservation programs and initiatives. However, it is important that you discuss your intent with the ACF in advance—unfortunately, ACF is not able to accept all gifts of real estate, depending upon such factors as location of the property, complexity of managing the property, taxes and other costs, etc. Additionally, if you wish to leave real estate that you want protected in its natural state, please be sure to discuss this ahead of time with ACF as well. ACF is not a land conservation agency, but can help you to locate a land trust in your community to ensure your wishes are carried out.

Legal Designation for ACF

If you are drafting your will or living trust and wish to include a bequest to ACF, consult with your legal advisor and with your family to ensure that both legal and family concerns are addressed. If you already have a will, it is usually easy to add in a bequest to ACF by having your attorney draft a codicil to your existing will. In any event, please consult with ACF’s Development Office prior to finalizing any bequest to ensure that ACF can carry out your charitable intentions and so that we can say thank you (such discussions are kept strictly confidential). Provide your attorney with the wording below to establish an unrestricted bequest to ACF for its conservation programs and operations. (If your bequest is sufficient in size to establish a named endowment fund, ACF’s staff and legal advisor can also recommend wording to you and your attorney to aid in defining your charitable intentions.) ACF’s federal tax identification number is 92-0061466.

I (we) give, devise, and bequeath _________ [specific asset, lump sum, or residual percentage] to the Alaska Conservation Foundation, Anchorage, Alaska, to be used for its charitable purposes [or describe specific purposes if so desired], which includes protecting the integrity of Alaska's ecosystems and promoting sustainable livelihoods for Alaska's communities and people .

If you would like more specific language, please contact our office at (907) 276-1917.

The information provided on this website is for general educational and public benefit purposes. Concepts described are effective only when used as part of an overall, carefully considered estate and financial plan. Inappropriate application of these concepts can have negative consequences. Anyone viewing this material is strongly encouraged to seek counsel from a qualified legal, accounting, and/or financial advisor prior to applying any of the information and ideas presented within these web pages to his or her own particular situation.