Boost Your Retirement Income

If retirement seems like a lifetime away, think again: It will be here before you know it! An estate planning tool called a charitable remainder unitrust could be a wise way to plan ahead for your best years yet.

How It Works
With a typical charitable remainder unitrust:

• You give assets to a trust you create for charity and immediately begin to receive an income from that trust for life.
• You select a payout rate for your income—often 5 percent to 7 percent—when you establish the trust.
• The dollar amount of your payment is determined by the annual value of the trust multiplied by your payout rate.

 Special versions of the unitrust can also provide flexibility that allows you to put amounts in the trust and be paid very little—at least initially—from the trust. You place money in the trust as often as desired, receive little income during your working years and then have the option of receiving a larger income later, perhaps at retirement, by changing the trust’s investment strategy. This allows the trust assets to build without taxation during your working years, which provides a larger asset base for income to be paid during retirement.

Your Advantages
Income tax deduction. You receive a charitable deduction based in part on your age at the time of the gift.

Greater income. The assets in the trust grow tax-free, just as they would in a retirement account. Because the trust pays no income and capital gains taxes, more income is available during your retirement years. Note that trust distributions are subject to tax to the recipient.

Flexibility. You can name a spouse (and others) as an additional income beneficiary.

An eventual gift. Your selected charities will receive what remains in the trust at the death of the last income beneficiary.

Please contact Sharon Bosserman-Benson for the Undergraduate or the Graduate School at 503-768-7911, 800-753-9292, or plangivg@lclark.edu, or the Law School development office at 503-768-6901 or lawgive@lclark.edu to learn more about this and other charitable gifts that can provide you with payments during retirement. You can also read more about the charitable remainder unitrust in the free eBrochure Receive Income for Life With a Deferred Gift: Consider the Benefits of a Charitable Remainder Unitrust. Simply click here.