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LEAVE A LEGACY

About the Holy Angels Legacy Society

The Holy Angels Legacy Society recognizes residents, parents and families, staff, and friends who wish to support Holy Angels through an estate provision, beneficiary designation, or life income gift. There is no minimum requirement.

Through your gift, you become part of a distinguished group of individuals dedicated to preserving and enhancing the quality of residential care at Holy Angels. Holy Angels Legacy Society members are invited to enjoy special events and are included in outreach focused on helping them to stay engaged with Holy Angels.

Holy Angels Legacy Society members share a vision for securing Holy Angels’ future for the next generation of residents.

Membership

To learn more about becoming a member of the Holy Angels Legacy Society, please reach out to us. If you have already named Holy Angels in your estate plans, we would like to thank you for your generosity, learn about your gift so we can honor your intentions, and recognize you as a member of the Holy Angels Legacy Society. We honor all requests for anonymity.

Other Ways of Giving

There are a variety of other ways to support the mission and work of Holy Angels. Through creative gift planning, you can make a gift that offers both significant tax advantages and opportunities to create new income streams for life. These gift ideas offer a chance to make immediate gifts or long-term commitments that align with your personal or family aspirations and interests as you consider your overall financial and estate plans.

Life Insurance

You may have a life insurance policy that you purchased years ago to protect your family, and today, you may no longer need this life insurance policy.  There are several ways to use a life insurance policy in support of Holy Angels. The ultimate insurance proceeds can fund a special commitment to the work of Holy Angels by creating an endowment that would make a difference for generations to come. You may:

  • Designate Holy Angels as the beneficiary (or partial beneficiary) of a life insurance policy. This offers no income tax benefit, but it does offer estate tax advantages.
  • Donate a paid-up life insurance policy by naming Holy Angels as the owner and beneficiary. This offers optimal tax advantages based on the policy’s cash value.
  • Give a policy that still requires premium payments. In this case, you can switch from making the premium payments directly to making annual—tax-deductible—gifts to Holy Angels. Holy Angels will then make the premium payments on the life insurance policy, a great win-win gift opportunity.

Testamentary Gifts (Bequests & Trust Distributions)

The most common way that donors make legacy commitments to Holy Angels is by a testamentary gift. Whether in a Will or Trust, such a gift is relatively easy to establish in your estate plans. All that is necessary to create a legacy gift for Holy Angels is a provision that designates Holy Angels to receive a distribution at the time of your death.  In your Will, this is called a Bequest, and in your Trust, this is called a Grant or Trust Distribution.

There are several ways you can make your legacy gift:

  • You can simply designate a specific amount to be distributed for Holy Angels
  • You can indicate that the gift will be a specific percentage of your estate (or Trust)
  • You can earmark all or part of your estate’s residue for the benefit of Holy Angels

You also can indicate in our plans whether you wish to provide the testamentary gift as unrestricted support for Holy Angels or designate your testamentary gift to support a particular program or purpose that is especially meaningful to you and your family,

Testamentary gifts are popular with donors because they are a very flexible way to make a commitment now and retain the opportunity to adjust your commitment at any time your circumstances may change.

In the case of estates that may be taxable under the federal estate or state inheritance tax laws, testamentary gifts may offer an optimal opportunity to make a generous gift that helps offset a significant portion of the tax liability that otherwise would be imposed at the time of your death.

Sample Bequest Language

A Bequest Designated for Unrestricted Use:

To support the work of the Holy Angels Residential Facility in Shreveport, Louisiana, I make a bequest to the Zita Trust’s Sister Concetta Fund for Holy Angels (Tax ID Number # 20-5177582), also in Shreveport, Louisiana.  My intention is that this unrestricted gift will support Holy Angels in carrying out its mission. The amount of this gift is the sum of _________ dollars. [OR: …an amount equal to ________ percent of the net value of my estate.  OR: …all the residue of my estate.]

A Bequest Designated for a Restricted Purpose:

To support the work of the Holy Angels Residential Facility in Shreveport, Louisiana, I make a bequest to the Zita Trust’s Sister Concetta Fund for Holy Angels (Tax ID Number # 20-5177582), also in Shreveport, Louisiana.  My intention is that this gift will be used for the benefit of [a specific program or purpose] at Holy Angels, as it goes about its mission. The amount of this gift is the sum of _________ dollars. [OR: …an amount equal to ________ percent of the net value of my estate.  OR: …all the residue of my estate.]

Charitable Gift Annuity

A gift annuity is a simple agreement that provides you with a fixed income for your lifetime or the lifetime of one or two beneficiaries you name at the time you create this gift. The annual amount paid is determined by rates recommended by the American Council on Gift Annuities. As is the case with any annuity, the older the annuitant, the higher the level of income.

Deferred Gift Annuity

For younger donors, a deferred gift annuity offers increased income tax benefits. All of the features and benefits of a gift annuity are provided with a deferred gift annuity, but the actual distribution of the income is delayed until a future date, chosen at the time the gift is created. The longer the time between the creation of a deferred gift annuity and the start of the payments, the greater the rate of return and the larger the income tax charitable deduction.

Testamentary Gift Annuity

Because of recent changes in federal tax laws, it is no longer possible for children or grandchildren to stretch out the distributions from an inherited IRA over the course of their lifetime. Instead, they now need to liquidate an inherited IRA within 10 years of the death of their parent (or grandparent), who left the IRA to them. This situation often creates a severe cost – in the form of federal income tax liability.

The good news is that there’s an option available: You can designate your IRA to fund a charitable gift annuity at the time of your death, with your children (or grandchildren) named as the beneficiaries of a tax-advantaged fixed annual income for the rest of their lifetimes. This arrangement effectively stretches out the value of your IRA over their lifetimes—and then, at the survivor’s death, the remaining funds would pass to the Sister Concetta Fund of Holy Angels as your legacy gift for Holy Angels. This relatively simple arrangement minimizes the tax consequences of an inherited IRA for your beneficiaries and ensures a legacy gift for Holy Angels.

Real Estate

A gift of real estate can be a desirable way to create a gift that supports the work of Holy Angels. For example, you can leave your primary or secondary home, a farm, or commercial property as a legacy gift in your estate plans. You would receive an immediate tax deduction at the time of the gift—and you could enjoy a usufructuary interest in the property for the rest of your life (and the life of your spouse, if married).

Personal Property

The mineral and timber rights, as well as the interests in oil and gas, that you hold just may be an ideal asset to create a very special gift in support of Holy Angels. Appreciated assets such as these offer a way to make a generous tax-advantaged gift in your estate plan. Such a gift to the Sister Concetta Fund of Holy Angels would reflect the interest’s fair market value—and you would avoid taxation on the appreciation in value that otherwise would be payable.

For More Information

If you have a question or need more information about ways to support Holy Angels, please contact Laurie Boswell, Chief Executive Officer, at 318.797.8500 or angels@laholyangels.org.

Conclusion

We hope this brief outline of a few ways to create gifts in support of Holy Angels will spark thoughts about ways that may be just right for you and your family. As you consider making a legacy gift, the best first step is to contact us so we can talk about your ideas and desires. We can help you create a gift plan that fits your circumstances and meets your needs. You also may want to include your professional advisors in these discussions.