Charitable Remainder Trusts Washington DC

(Denver) - Perhaps you have the following problem. You've accumulated considerable assets over a lifetime of working and investing. Now you face a potentially large estate tax bill if you keep those assets until death, or a large capital-gains tax if you sell them. At the same time, you may want a way to boost your retirement income.

One solution to this situation may be to give away those assets. That's right, give them away. If you have a favorite qualified charity or nonprofit institution you'd like to benefit, such as a university, hospital, or church, an estate planning tool that might help you and the charity is the charitable remainder trust.

"People think of the charitable remainder trust primarily as a tool for the charitably motivated, and obviously that motivation is critical," says Gregg Parish, JD, an academic associate at the College for Financial Planning®, a division of the National Endowment for Financial Education®. "What many people don't realize is the important financial benefits for the donor as well."

The charitable remainder trust (CRT) works as its name implies. You donate an asset such as stocks or real estate to a charitable trust. It sells the assets and reinvests the proceeds in income-producing assets. The donor receives income payments for a lifetime, or a predetermined time period, and at death or the end of the trust term, the remaining assets (remainder interest) pass on to the charity.

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