The United Mitochondrial Disease Foundation’s “Taking Control” initiative is designed to help our members and donors develop, coordinate, and implement the necessary planning, strategies, and financial instruments to ensure that your financial goals are met. Dan Martin, a partner with The Monteverde Group (www.monteverdegroup.com), is available to provide free, no obligation, expert assistance coupled with complete confidentiality to all UMDF members and potential donors. UMDF has been a long-time partner with Dan and The Monteverde Group. There is no better time to discover how planned giving can be BOTH an integral part of your family’s financial planning and tax management as well as an effective way to support UMDF and its mission.

For a free consultation, all you need to do is contact Dan Martin at dmartin@monteverdegroup.com to discuss any financial issues dealing with charitable donations and tax management. Even if you currently have a financial advisor, Dan can provide a second opinion on your financial situation just to ensure your financial comfort and stability. You have nothing to lose because the service is free with no obligation.

As you think about evaluating your financial situation, consider these 13 important ways that charitable giving through a planned gift can help you and UMDF:

1. Give yourself a tax deduction by giving a charitable contribution
2. Give yourself an income stream through a gift annuity that can provide a generous, non-fluctuating stream of income—for life!
3. Give your children a college education through planned giving techniques that can fund your child’s education with tax advantaged accumulation.
4. Give your heirs a larger inheritance through charitable giving options that offer many effective options for tax effective estate planning, including removing tax liability.
5. Give yourself a retirement plan through a charitable remainder trust that is tax exempt, funded by contributions that are partially tax deductible, and even provides life insurance that can make the plan self-completing.
6. Give yourself a business exit strategy and help your family, partners, or employees plan for business succession. Planned giving techniques can help eliminate large taxes on capital gains or reduce estate taxes that challenge business transfers to the next generation.
7. Give yourself increased cash flow because charitable giving provides tax deductions and can diminish taxes on capital gains of highly appreciated assets.
8. Give your children protection with a properly drafted trust to protect their inheritance or preserve their benefits eligibility with a special needs trust.
9. Give your investment portfolio a boost with a charitable remainder trust that will help you better manage your investments without tax concerns.
10. Give a memorial gift on behalf of a loved one or friend that will acknowledge their memory and help UMDF continue the fight towards a cure.
11. Give your heirs a purpose and a mission in life by setting up a private foundation, a supporting organization or donor advised funds that help them appreciate the value of money and exhibit compassion for others by participating in grant making to UMDF and other important causes.
12. Give yourself control by simply sending your tax dollars to the government for them to control or taking charge by using charitable devices to support the causes and efforts dear to you…like UMDF.
13. Give hope, energy and life by using charitable giving techniques to make tax deductible contributions to UMDF to advance research, educational initiatives and support for affected individuals and their families.

Planned Giving is not just an important part of your financial planning and tax management, but it can play an integral role in helping you fund the UMDF’s mission and critical mitochondrial research. Here are just a few examples of ways you can “take control” of your financial future through Planned Giving and help UMDF as well.

1. Give Cash – A cash gift is the most popular way to support the efforts of UMDF. If you itemize donations on your tax return, charitable contributions qualify for tax deductions of up to 50 percent of the donor’s adjusted gross income, and any unused balance can be carried forward for five years.
2. Give Appreciated Assets –A commonly used technique for tax planning and management, a properly structured gift of highly appreciate property results in a charitable deduction for the full fair market value of the gift. This type of gift has the added benefit of helping the donor escape any related tax liability for large capital gains.
3. Give a Memorial Gift – Remember, acknowledge and honor the memory of an important individual in your life with a gift in their name. Gift can range from a one-time contribution to an annual gift paid over several years that can help underwrite an event or program.
4. Give Life Insurance – Many people own policies for purposes that no longer exist such as insurance purchased to cover an old mortgage or to pay for a child’s college education. Donating the policy produced a current tax donation. If the potential exists for need of the cash value, retain ownership (and control of the money) but make UMDF the beneficiary. If the money is no longer all needed for the policy’s original purpose, or is more than you want to donate, liquidate the policy and give UMDF a portion of the proceeds. You receive the balance and the gift may reduce or eliminate tax liability from the sale.
5. Make a Bequest – Include UMDF in your will, trusts and estate plans with a general bequest of a specific dollar amount; a specific bequest of property or real estate; or a residuary bequest of any remainder after distributions to your children and heirs.
6. Name UMDF as a Beneficiary – You can specify UMDF as the contingent beneficiary of your insurance policies, IRAs and qualified plans, annuities, or will. This avoids assets passing to unintended parties should your named, primary beneficiaries not survive you.
7. Purchase a Gift Annuity – Purchase a UMDF gift annuity and guarantee an income stream for life. Rates are age-based and many older, retired donors may do better than CDs, bonds or low-yielding stocks. Annuities provide a regular, generous non-fluctuating stream of payments unaffected by the market or changing interest rates—and a portion of the payment is tax free.
8. Annuities may be funded with highly appreciated assets, avoiding capital gains and increasing the assets on which the income stream is based. The portion that comprises the charitable contribution yields a deduction to offset current income. Straightforward, with no need for a new will or legal documents, the features of a gift annuity make this type of gift feasible and potentially beneficial to individuals of even moderate means.
9. Establish a Charitable Remainder Trust (CRT) – A CRT is an extremely flexible tool to address any number of financial and tax planning issues and goals. Donors retain the legal right to income from the trust, but the assets funding the trust are removed from the donor’s taxable estate, as is any subsequent growth. The trust is tax-exempt and can receive highly appreciated assets and liquidate them without incurring a tax on massive capital gains. The donor receives a substantial tax deduction when funding the trust. By varying trust components, CRTs can be used for retirement funding, college and educational funding, active investment management, business succession planning and exit strategies, funding special needs trusts for dependent individuals, increasing retirement income, and estate planning, including “zero tax” plans, among others.

Planned giving provides many ways to help and benefit you and the UMDF. Through planned giving, you can use the considerable incentives for charitable gifts found in the tax code to your advantage as well as UMDF’s…and you can redirect your tax dollars to support UMDF’s mission of research, education and support.

“Take Control” of your financial plan today, and help UMDF at the same time. Please contact your financial advisor to evaluate these options or take advantage of consultations through UMDF with a senior financial advisor. For information, contact Dan Martin at dmartin@monteverdegroup.com.