Money Matters III: Legacy
A presenter at a planned giving workshop once said, “If you want your estate to be used in accordance with your wishes, don’t leave it to your children.” Honestly, I cannot remember where I heard that, but I can still feel the bristly unease that welled up within me when I heard it. I have carried that statement with me for years, and I am still working to unpack it.
For starters, I want to say that you should, if at all possible, honor your children and care for them with your estate. Tucked away in a seldom-used part of the prayer book is the rubric that the clergy are to instruct their congregations about “the duty of Christian parents to make prudent provision for the well-being of their families, and of all persons to make wills…not neglecting, if they are able, to leave bequests for religious and charitable uses” (BCP p. 445). In other words, all of us are called to make arrangements that honor our families and, if possible, the churches and other organizations that reflect our values. How can we do all of that and be faithful to God in the process?
In the other two installments of this three-part series, I have invited you to think of the ways that your spending and your savings reflect and shape your faith. In this final part, I want to ask the same questions about your planned giving—about the ways that your financial resources will be used after you die. If we have an opportunity to express our belief in God through our budgets and investments while we are alive, we also have that opportunity when we make arrangements for the disposal of our assets upon our death.
Returning to the admittedly harsh remark made by that presenter in the planned giving workshop, I think one important notion to dispel is that the church—or any other charitable institution—would ever ask you to prioritize its operations over the welfare of your family. As the prayer book instruction makes clear, taking care of our loved ones is a first priority. Nevertheless, as the speaker’s comment implies, if you leave your money to your children, you may want to let go of the need to control how that money will be used. Instead, trust your children and give what you can with no strings attached. Except in extenuating circumstances, both you and they will be better off if you stop trying to parent them from the grave.
When you leave a gift to an independent organization, however, that entity is bound to honor your gifts in accordance with your wishes. When we accept your gift, we also accept the restrictions you may have placed upon it. More than a legal obligation, though, organizations like ours are guided by the deep gratitude they feel for your generosity—for a gift you could have just as easily given to anyone else. Helping people give gifts like that—gifts that they know will be appreciated for generations—is a wonderful part of my job.
Once your family’s physical needs are secure, how might you use your estate to express what matters most to you—to honor the values that define you as a person? What are those values that you would seek to express through your estate? When you leave a planned gift to a charitable organization, you help make it possible for that entity to carry out its work for years to come, long after you are unable to write any more checks. Will you care for those who experience food insecurity or homelessness? Will you support local education? Will you help vulnerable women transition to economic and emotional security? Will you help provide for the worship, outreach, or properties of the church you love? All of those are faithful ways to use a portion of your estate. For those who have the means to do so, our responsibility is to decide how.
A gift to the St. Paul’s Endowment is one way to express your faith through your estate. Currently, our Endowment Committee, in consultation with our investment managers, allows a 4.5% withdrawal from the endowment each year to be used in accordance with the various donors’ wishes. With that arrangement, we anticipate that the endowment will continue to support the operations of the church at the current level—about 10% of the budget. As our church grows and the scope of ministry we pursue grows, we hope that both our annual giving and our planned giving will grow as well.
If we are able to use 4.5% of the endowment each year, you could endow your annual commitment with a one-time gift of about 22 times that yearly amount. For example, an annual gift of $5,000 would be given in perpetuity by an estate gift to the endowment of around $111,000. If you are looking for a way to include your church in your planned giving, I would invite you to start there. If giving a proportional, sacrificial, first-fruits gift to God is already a yearly priority in your life, doing so through your estate makes sense, too.
Unlike annual gifts, which are allocated to various ministries by the Vestry through the annual budget, planned gifts can be restricted to support a particular area of ministry that matters most to you. Most of our estate gifts, including the McMichael Endowment, are unrestricted and are used however the Vestry thinks is best. Some, like the Gregg/Shively Endowment, are used for local outreach. Others, like the Reynolds/Murphy Endowment, are designated for the upkeep of our historic buildings. If you would like to make a planned gift to the church, please contact Joy Poole and let her know so that we can help you make that gift in a way that both honors your desires and meets the church’s needs.
There are many ways to make a planned gift, and your will is only one of them. You can make the church a partial beneficiary on your life insurance policy or retirement account. You can set up a charitable remainder trust or another specialized planned giving instrument. Before worrying about those sorts of details, however, I would invite you to think about what matters first. How will you help ensure that the physical and financial needs of your family are cared for? After that, how will you express what you have held most dear in your life after your life is over? Being faithful in our deaths is as important as being faithful in our lives.
On Sunday April 24, members of the Planned Giving Committee and representatives from our endowment investment managers will be with us for the Adult Forum at 10:00 a.m.. If you want to know more about planned giving opportunities, please join us.
Yours Faithfully,
Evan