Charitable Remainder Trusts

Plan a Future Gift Through Your Trust

Planning a future gift to the American Heart Association through your trust is a way to provide for yourself and loved ones today while making a significant impact on a healthier future.

A charitable trust is structured in a way that makes the trust exempt from income taxes while allowing you to provide for both designated individuals and charities that you care about.

Charitable Remainder Trusts (CRTs) are powerful financial planning tools that can be structured to meet a wide variety of personal, family, and charitable objectives and can provide significant tax advantages.

This type of trust can provide you or other named individuals with reliable income for a specified length of time up to 20 years, your lifetime, or your beneficiaries’ lifetime. At the end of the trust term, the balance is transferred to one or more charities that can include the American Heart Association and used for our mission to advance health and hope for everyone, everywhere. There are two ways to structure Charitable Remainder Trusts.

Charitable Remainder Unitrust

A Charitable Remainder Unitrust (CRUT) pays you a variable income payment each year based on a fixed percentage of the fair market value of the trust assets. Your trust assets will be valued annually to determine the amount you will receive. If the trust’s assets increase, the payments to you or your beneficiaries will increase, and vice versa.

Benefits

• You may receive an immediate income tax deduction for a portion of your contribution to your trust.
• You may bypass or defer capital gains tax on appreciated assets you donate.
• You or your designated beneficiaries receive income for life or a term of years.
• You can make additional gifts to the trust as your circumstances allow and may qualify for additional tax deductions.
• Assets used to fund the unitrust are removed from your taxable estate, thereby reducing or eliminating any potential estate tax liability.

How It Works

1. Transfer cash, securities, or other appreciated property into your trust.
2. Receive a fixed percentage of the trust’s value each year; the amount you receive can go up or down as the trust’s value changes.
3. When the trust ends, one or more charities receive the remaining assets held by the trust.

Charitable Remainder Annuity Trust

A Charitable Remainder Annuity Trust (CRAT) pays you a fixed income amount, regardless of fluctuations in trust investments. You’ll receive the same amount each year.

Benefits

• You may receive an immediate income tax deduction for a portion of your contribution to your trust.
• You may bypass or defer capital gains tax on any appreciated assets you donate.
• You or your beneficiaries receive stable, predictable income.

How It Works

1. Transfer cash, securities, or other appreciated property into your trust.
2. The percentage payout you select when you establish a Charitable Remainder Annuity Trust is applied to the value of the asset(s) you used to fund the trust and you receive that fixed amount each year for the duration of the trust. It can be established for one or two lifetimes, or for a set term of years.
3. When the trust ends, one or more charities receive the remaining assets held by the trust.