What is a Bequest?
A bequest is a gift from your estate—a transfer of cash, securities, or other property made through your estate plans. You can make a bequest gift to InCommunity by including language in your will or living trust, leaving a portion of your estate to InCommunity, or by designating InCommunity as a beneficiary of your retirement account or life insurance policy.
Honoring InCommunity with a bequest from your estate will help sustain and strengthen our organization for many years to come. Below are some great advantages of bequest gifts.
A bequest costs nothing now, yet gives you the satisfaction of knowing you have provided for InCommunity in the future
It gives you control of and use of your assets during your lifetime
You may always modify your bequest if your circumstances change
Gifts to InCommunity from your estate are exempt from federal estate taxes
If you let Stanford know of your plans, we will be able to thank you now and recognize you as a member of our InCommunity Philanthropist Group.
Making a Bequest
A bequest to InCommunity can be made for a specific amount, for a percentage of your estate, or for all or a portion of what is left after you have made bequests to your family. To make a gift to InCommunity from your estate, you must sign a new will or living trust instrument, add a codicil to your present will, or make an amendment to your present trust instrument.
Alternatively, you can designate InCommunity as a beneficiary of a retirement plan or life insurance policy. To do so, contact the retirement plan administrator or life insurance company and complete the appropriate beneficiary designation form. You can designate a specific purpose for such a gift with a separate letter prepared with assistance from us.
To assist you in preparing your bequest, we have provided sample bequest language.
Planning your Bequest
When planning for a bequest, you will need to consider how you would like your gift to be used to benefit InCommunity—whether unrestricted in purpose or restricted to a specific program or purpose, and whether you would like it to be an expendable fund (to be spent when received) or an endowed fund (to last in perpetuity).
An unrestricted bequest allows us to determine how to use the funds based on its most pressing needs. Unrestricted bequests are extremely valuable because we can use them to flexibly meet its future needs.
A restricted bequest directs assets to a specific purpose, such as a particular day program or department. A restricted bequest may be for an expendable or endowed fund. Because each restricted bequest is unique, we encourages donors considering this type of gift to speak with us beforehand about the appropriate language.
Expendable funds are used in their entirety, generally within a relatively short time frame. Some larger expendable gifts are used over longer periods.
Endowed funds provide income every year in perpetuity to carry out the designated purpose of the fund. Note that endowed funds have minimum required amounts.