Planned Giving

List of 6 items.

• Bequests

  A charitable gift from your estate: No other planned gift is as simple to make or as easy to change should you ever need the assets during your lifetime.
  
  A bequest may be right for you if:
  

  • You want to make a gift to HRA.
  • You want flexibility.
  • You want continued access to your wealth.
  • You are concerned about outliving your resources.

  A gift to HRA in your will or trust gives you maximum flexibility
  

  •  Control - Assets remain in your control during your lifetime should you need them.
  •  Easy to arrange - If you don't already have a will, you should consult legal counsel to prepare a will for you. If you already have a will, a simple amendment (called a codicil) can be used to add a gift to HRA.
  •  Revocable - A gift designation can be changed should the need arise.
  •  Tax savings - If your estate is subject to federal estate taxes your gift to HRA will qualify for an estate tax charitable deduction.

• Beneficiary Designations

  Giving a gift to Hampton Roads Academy using a beneficiary designation is easy for you and favorable for your heirs.
  As easy as filling out a form, one of the simplest ways to make a gift to HRA is to name us in your assets. You can specify the individuals and charities you want to support and the percentage of the assets you want each beneficiary to receive. 
  Beneficiary designations are available when giving the following assets: 
  
  Life Insurance
  Life Insurance policies can be used to make a gift to HRA. Complete and return to the insurance company a form designating that HRA receives all or a portion of the death benefit associated with your life insurance policy. As an alternative to naming HRA as the beneficiary, you can transfer ownership of the policy. Transferring ownership results in an immediate income tax charitable deduction and potential income tax savings in the year of the gift. 
  
  Retirement Assets
  Designating HRA as the beneficiary of your retirement assets allows you to transfer assets at your death without changing your will or living trust. All you need to do is complete a new beneficiary designation form, available from your plan administrator. 
  
  A gift of retirement assets is among the most tax-wise ways to make an estate gift. This is because your retirement assets, if left to individuals, will be subject to income tax when they receive distributions and, in the case of most non-spouses, those distributions must take place within 10 years, potentially pushing designated beneficiaries into higher tax brackets. With a gift to HRA, 100 percent of the funds are available for its charitable purposes. It is often better to leave other types of assets – cash, securities, real estate – to your heirs and give the more heavily taxed retirement asset to HRA.
  
  Commercial Annuity Contracts
  A commercial annuity will sometimes have a remaining value at the end of the annuitant’s lifetime. You can name HRA to receive all or part of this amount by designating it as a beneficiary (sole or partial) on the appropriate form from the insurance company.
  Bank Accounts 
  
  You can instruct your bank to pay HRA all or a portion of what remains in a checking or savings account. Your bank can provide you with the appropriate beneficiary designation form.
  
  Investment Accounts
  You can instruct your investment company to transfer to HRA some or all investments held in the account at the time of your passing. Your broker or agent can let you know the process for doing this – it may be as simple as adding “T.O.D. to Hampton Roads Academy” after your name on the account.
  
  Using a beneficiary designation to make a gift to HRA is often overlooked, and potentially can result in more of your assets going to your heirs. As with other loyal supporters, the uncertainty of how much you may need in retirement might make you reluctant to part with assets now that you may need later. It’s understandable. Here is "why" and "how" using a beneficiary designation may work for you and HRA.
  
  

  Your will or living trust is only part of the picture
  The distribution of assets passing through your probate estate is determined by your will. If you have a living trust, it only distributes assets owned by the trust. You likely own many assets not controlled by your will or living trust. These assets will pass to your heirs or others you have named as beneficiaries in documents other than your will or living trust. You may have more assets that will pass through beneficiary designations than will pass under your will or living trust.
  
  Your beneficiary designation controls who gets these assets:
  

  • Retirement accounts
  • Life Insurance Policy
  • Bank accounts such as Certificates of Deposit and Savings Accounts
  • Investment Accounts at brokerage companies
  • Commercial Annuity Contracts

  Taxes can reduce what your heirs receive
  In most cases, you have never paid income taxes on assets you contributed to retirement accounts such as IRAs, 401(k)s, and 403(b)s. If you name your heirs as beneficiaries of these accounts, the IRS will require that they pay income taxes when they withdraw the assets, which for most non-spouse designated beneficiaries must take place within 10 years, potentially pushing those beneficiaries into higher tax brackets. If your estate is subject to estate tax, assets controlled by beneficiary designation could subject your estate to even more taxes and further deplete these accounts for heirs. HRA is tax-exempt. Therefore, if you name HRA as the beneficiary you can use the full value of the accounts to advance our mission. Leaving other assets to your heirs will allow them to keep more of your assets.
  
  Your next steps
  You should consult with your professional advisors as to how naming HRA as a beneficiary of some or all of your accounts will impact your overall estate plan. You will need to obtain the beneficiary designation forms from account administrators and return the completed forms to the administrators. Some financial institutions will allow you to designate beneficiaries through their website.
  
  We are here to assist.  Contact:
  
  Jaik Henderson
  Executive Director of Advancement
  Hampton Roads Academy
  739 Academy Lane
  Newport News, VA  23602
  (757) 884-9135
  jhende@hra.org

• Life Insurance

  Change Lives With Life Insurance
  
  Life insurance can be a tool with many purposes. When your children were young, for example, you may have purchased policies to provide them with financial protection in case something should happen to you or your spouse.
  
  Have your circumstances changed since then? If so, you might be interested in one of the most satisfying uses for life insurance you no longer need: donating it to a charitable cause such as ours. Here are three ways to arrange this gift.
  
  1. Give an Existing Policy
  
  When you choose to name our organization as the policy owner and beneficiary, you qualify for a federal income tax charitable deduction for the lower of the policy's fair market value or your cost basis. For paid-up insurance, the fair market value is the cost of replacing the coverage with a comparable policy.
  
  When you donate a life insurance policy to charity during your lifetime, you qualify for a federal income tax charitable deduction. If premiums are still payable on the policy, the fair market value is usually close to the cash surrender value. You may stipulate to us that you wish to no longer make future premium payments, allowing us to access the surrender value immediately for our cash needs.
  
  An alternative, however, may be even more attractive. The policy can remain ours and will stay in force so that someday we receive the original face amount. You pledge to make yearly cash gifts, which we will use to pay the premiums. The gifts are deductible when you itemize, and the policy is thereby kept in force with pretax instead of after-tax dollars for a lower actual cost.
  
  2. Retain Ownership of an Existing Policy and Name Us as a Beneficiary
  
  When you retain ownership of a policy but name a charity as the beneficiary, any amount payable at death will not be subject to federal estate tax. If you would rather retain ownership of a policy for your own financial security or that of others, you have the following options:
  

  • Name us as the sole or partial primary beneficiary of the policy, while you retain the right to change the beneficiary as owner of the policy.
  • Name us as the contingent beneficiary, so we receive the death benefits only if your primary beneficiary predeceases you.
  • Create a separate trust named to receive the death benefits, with terms providing for the financial support for one or more named loved ones for a specific term of years or for life, after which the trust terminates and its assets pass to us.

  These options do not produce a current federal income tax charitable deduction, but they can provide the satisfaction of knowing we will receive some benefits if certain events occur and the arrangement is left unchanged.
  
  3. Create a New Policy for Future Charitable Gifts
  In most states, you can enter into a new insurance contract with a charitable organization such as ours as the beneficiary and owner of the policy. Greater leverage is possible when two donors, usually husband and wife, purchase a two-life, second-to-die policy. With two lifetimes before payment of benefits, a desired future gift to us may be obtained for substantially fewer premium dollars. These policies are typically available even if one spouse is not insurable and are generally more economical than a policy only on the insurable spouse.
  
  When considering any of these charitable arrangements, it is advisable to consult with an advisor with expertise in finance, law, taxes and life insurance. We would be happy to answer any questions regarding charitable giving that you or your advisor may have. Feel free to contact us with no obligation.

• Charitable Gift Annuities

  A charitable gift annuity provides fixed payments for life in exchange for a gift of cash or securities to Hampton Roads Academy. Gift annuities are easy to set up and the payments you receive are backed by the general resources of Hampton Roads Academy.   
  
  A charitable gift annuity could be right for you if:
  

  • You want to maintain or increase your cash flow.
  • You want the security of fixed, dependable payments for life.
  • You want to save income taxes or capital gains taxes.
  • You would like income that is partially tax-free.
  • You want to make a gift to HRA of $10,000 or more.
  • You are at least 65 years of age.

  THE BENEFITS OF A LIFE INCOME GIFT: WITH THE CHARITABLE GIFT ANNUITY
  
  Financial security and support for Hampton Roads Academy
  
  Life is full of competing priorities. Often the things we want to do don't coordinate with what we know we need to do. If you are in or approaching retirement, you know that one priority is making sure you have enough income. Yet, you may also want to continue your support of favorite charities such as Hampton Roads Academy. Saving and charitable giving don’t have to be competing priorities. Enter the HRA charitable gift annuity! Consider achieving two of your priorities at once - both income and charitable support.

• Charitable Lead Trust

  Make a substantial gift to Hampton Roads Academy in the form of fixed annual payments and pass assets to your family or other heirs at reduced gift and estate tax cost. 
  
  A charitable lead annuity trust may be right for you if:
  

  • You have substantial assets that you do not need currently for your own financial security.
  • You want to provide for your family or other heirs.
  • You want to save gift taxes, estate taxes, and probate costs.
  • You want your gift to make a difference at HRA starting immediately.
  • You could consider a gift of $250,000 or more to benefit HRA and your heirs.

• Charitable Remainder Trusts

  A charitable remainder unitrust can help you maintain or increase your income while making a significant gift to Hampton Roads Academy. The charitable remainder unitrust is highly flexible. You can easily make gifts of assets that are not easily converted to cash using the unitrust. If your unitrust grows, your payments will grow too, providing a potential hedge against inflation.
  
  

  A charitable remainder unitrust could be right for you if:

  • You want to provide income for yourself or others.
  • You want the possibility of income growth.
  • You want to save income taxes or capital gains taxes.
  • You want to choose the person who administers your gift and guides its investments.
  • You want to make a generous gift to HRA.
  • You are considering a gift amount of $50,000 or more.

  Why make a gift to Hampton Roads Academy using a Charitable Remainder Trust?
  
  

  You have accumulated an investment portfolio over a lifetime. You own stocks, bonds, mutual funds, and perhaps investment real estate. The assets have substantially appreciated in value and worked well for you, but your financial goals are evolving. Investment management has become more complicated. You now want a source of income without the time, effort, and complexity of managing your investments. If you sell the assets you’ll lose much of the gain to taxes.
  
  

  What can you do if you also want to provide meaningful support to Hampton Roads Academy without negatively impacting your current finances? Consider achieving your objectives with a gift to either a Charitable Remainder Unitrust or a Charitable Remainder Annuity Trust. You can select which type of trust is right for you depending on your objectives.