Planned Gifts

Charitable Gift Annuities
The Smith College charitable gift annuity is a fixed-income plan that pays the donor or another person (or both) annual payments for life. The payout rate is determined by the beneficiary's age.

Gift annuities also provide immediate federal income tax benefits for donors who itemize their returns. Part of the gift is deductible as a charitable contribution to Smith, and a portion of the beneficiary's income may be received tax-free.

Pooled Income Funds
Smith College maintains two pooled-income funds: an income-oriented fund and a growth-oriented fund, managed and invested by a leading financial institution. The funds differ in investment objectives, current yields, and the size of the immediate charitable deduction generated by each gift. A participant in either fund receives income for life with no management fees. Although income will vary from year to year, reasonable stability can be expected.

Charitable Remainder Trusts
A charitable remainder trust is a flexible financial instrument that can generate a tax deduction in the year the gift is made, provide a lifetime income stream for the donor or a designated individual, and ultimately leave a significant gift for the college. You may fund a trust with a gift of cash, appreciated securities, real estate, privately held stock, or other non-cash assets.

Charitable trusts are separately invested and managed by a trustee selected by the college or by one of the donor's choice. Unitrusts pay a fixed percentage of the fair market value of the assets in the trust; if the trust grows, payments will grow accordingly. You can make additional contributions to the assets of a unitrust.

Annuity trusts provide income based on a fixed percentage of the initial gift. Payments are fixed at the date of the gift and never change, which assures that the beneficiary receives a specific payment amount regardless of how investment markets perform. No additional contributions can be made to such a trust.

Charitable Lead Trusts
The charitable lead trust is designed for those who wish to hold capital assets and pass them on to heirs while minimizing gift and estate taxes and benefiting the college.

The donor places assets in a trust for a specific number of years. Each year, either a specific amount or a fixed percentage of the fair market value of the assets is paid to Smith. At the end of the trust period, the trust principal reverts to the donor or the donor's heirs.

Although the donor does not receive an income tax deduction for the value of the payments made to Smith, the payments are removed from taxable income. Over time, this has the effect of a charitable deduction. A charitable lead trust can also be structured so that the trust principal's appreciation may not be subject to estate and gift taxes when it passes to beneficiaries at the end of the trust term. This type of trust preserves family assets while accomplishing a charitable goal.

Qualified Retirement Plan Benefits
For many people, retirement plan benefits constitute a major portion of their assets. However, such assets can be heavily taxed when they pass to heirs, and over-funding of retirement accounts can result in significant tax liabilities. Charitable uses of retirement benefits can provide benefits to the donor and recipients. For information, please contact Smith's Office of Planned Gifts and Bequests.

Bequests
A bequest is the result of careful thought about the good use of assets that have taken a lifetime of work, care, and stewardship to build or preserve. The bequest may be a specific sum or a percentage of an estate that can significantly increase the amount of the final gift.

To make an unrestricted bequest for the benefit of Smith College, we suggest the following wording. Additional bequest wordings for the establishment of named endowed funds (unrestricted or restricted to a specific purpose) are available upon request from the Office of Planned Gifts and Bequests.

"I bequeath to The Trustees of The Smith College, a charitable corporation, established by law at Northampton in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, percentage of the estate/the sum of _____ dollars/description of property to be used for the college's general purposes."

Life Insurance
There are many ways in which life insurance policies can be used to make a gift to Smith. Some provide a tax deduction and may enable the donor to make a larger gift than might otherwise be possible.

Please consult the Planned Giving pages for more specific and current information.