Advancing the Kingdom Through Legacy Giving

By: Laurie Valentine- COO & Trust Counsel

Your church, association and the Kentucky Baptist Convention and its agencies and institutions have a wide variety of important ministries that need financial support. Some may need funding to launch them into reality while others could use the support to continue or expand an existing program or ministry. The methods by which you may support these important causes through legacy giving (giving out of your assets, rather than your income) are also wide-ranging.

An outright gift of cash, appreciated securities or real estate is probably the most common, and simplest, way to make gifts during your lifetime.

Other methods of lifetime giving, such as charitable gift annuities and charitable remainder trusts, allow you to set up a future benefit to one or more Baptist causes while retaining an annual income for your lifetime or a term of years.

There are also a variety of methods you can arrange now to benefit the causes of your choice at your death. The most common is a bequest in your Will or Living Trust. Another possibility is to name a Baptist cause as the beneficiary of some portion of your retirement plan survivor benefit, IRA or a life insurance policy no longer needed for family security.

You can designate your gift be used for a specific program or ministry of the benefiting organization or you can allow the organization to choose how to use your gift. You may also want to limit the organization to using only the earnings off what you give (this type of arrangement is called an “endowment fund”).

Gifts may be made directly to the benefiting organization or may be given to a third party, such as the Kentucky Baptist Foundation, to manage for the designated beneficiary cause or causes.

Whether you wish to make gifts during your lifetime or at death, there are a variety of ways to by which you can advance the Kingdom by including a legacy gift in your estate plan.