Leaving a Legacy through Planned Giving:

It is the greatest pleasure of parents and grandparents to experience the joy and celebration of Jewish festivals, meaningful days, and learning experiences with their children. You have invested your time, resources, heart, and soul to ensure that l’dor v’dor is a reality. Your family, together with SAR, has been privileged to be active participants in the transmission of our values and practice to the next generation.

A LOVE LETTER TO FUTURE GENERATIONS:

If we would each be asked what our top lifetime priorities are, surely family and living a Jewish life based on Torah values would be among our top five. And if we were to write a LOVE LETTER to our children and grandchildren to communicate to them what matters–  we would include those values and priorities. 

A legacy gift is simply a gift made through your will or by your beneficiary designation that makes a gift to the institutions you care about at the end of life.  This type of gift clearly communicates your priorities. It gives a shape and a clear voice to your values. Through a legacy gift, your values live forever.

Your Legacy or Planned Giving Designation

Legacy or Planned Giving is a deeply personal act of selflessness. Directing your gift to SAR is a way to help ensure that Jewish education is accessible to future generations. You may choose to designate the gift to the school’s endowment, to SAR’s area of greatest need, or to any specific program that you indicate.  

Consider making your legacy gift by:

  • a bequest to SAR in your will 
  • naming SAR as a beneficiary of your IRA/retirement plan or one of your retirement accounts
  • naming SAR as a beneficiary of your life insurance policy

Your tax advisor or estate attorney is the best person to give you guidance.

HOW DO YOU MAKE A LEGACY GIFT?

LEGACY GIFT Q&A

What is a bequest?

When a donor makes a “bequest,” they commit a gift through their will that takes effect after their lifetime. This is the most common way that people make a gift to charity at the time of death.

An increasing number of people are making planned charitable gifts through beneficiary designations of individual retirement accounts (IRAs). Withdrawals from a traditional IRA account are generally subject to ordinary income-tax rates. This rule applies to withdrawals made by heirs who inherit IRAs, as well as for the original account owner. However, leaving a gift to charity out of an IRA eliminates the income tax and provides the full amount to the charity. Another beneficiary designation gift includes life insurance. 

How do bequests help SAR?
When the donation is made to SAR, the funds will follow any specific designation of the donor– whether the funds are directed to scholarship, Israel programming, alumni education, or any other specific program. If no designation is made, the donation will be used to help provide scholarship funds to families that qualify. 

Who can make bequests?
Everyone can participate and make a bequest either through a will or beneficiary designation on a retirement account. You should speak with your tax advisor or estate attorney,

How do I make my Legacy Gift?

A Legacy Gift can be made via a bequest in your will, designating SAR as the beneficiary of a retirement account or life insurance policy, or by creating a trust. You should speak with your tax advisor or estate attorney, about planned giving.

SAMPLE LANGUAGE:

Residual Bequest Language
A residual bequest comes to SAR after your estate expenses and specific bequests are paid:

I give, devise, or bequeath to SAR (Salanter Akiba Riverdale Academy,

Tax ID13-2646185) _________% of the rest, residue, and remainder of my estate, both real and personal, to be used for its general support (or for the support of a specific fund or program).

Specific Bequest Language
You can also name SAR as a beneficiary of a specific amount from your estate:

I give, devise, or bequeath to SAR (Salanter Akiba Riverdale Academy,

Tax ID13-2646185) the sum of $ ________________________ (or “____ shares of __________________ stock”) to be used for its general support (or for the support of a specific fund or program).

Contingent Bequest Language
SAR can be named as a contingent beneficiary in your will or personal trust if one or more of your specific bequests cannot be fulfilled:

If (individual heir’s name) is not living at the time of my demise, I give, devise or bequeath SAR in Riverdale, NY,  (Salanter Akiba Riverdale Academy, Tax ID 13-2646185) the sum of $ (or “all” or ” ___________ percentage of the residue of my estate”) to be used for its general support (or for the support of a specific fund or program.

 See more Questions and Answers in the SAR ENDOWMENT info section. 

Questions?
Please call or email Heidi Greenbaum, Director of Development if you have questions about SAR directed giving. For advice regarding your bequests, please contact your estate attorney, tax advisor, or retirement account custodian. SAR cannot offer tax or legal advice. 

  • Carol Karsch, an experienced Legacy Giving professional, and an SAR Grandparent, describes the act of planned giving in the most beautiful way– as One More Child. Carol has been instrumental in helping families leave the most beautiful legacies in the United States and Israel. 

Here is an excerpt from one of Carol Karsch’s blogs:

“We are each endowed with different talents and advantages. Children, in particular, are a blessing that comes to some and not others.

But whether we have ten kids or none at all, we all have One More Child to worry about and protect. We each have a unique opportunity through this Child to pass our values on to the next generation. That One More Child is ‘community’, however we may wish to define it.”

Carol Karsch, a legacy expert, and SAR grandparent