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Planned Giving/Estate Planning
Appropriate estate planning is beneficial to almost everyone. The things we accumulate over our lifetimes – money, personal possessions, property – are simply gifts from God, entrusted to us to manage. There comes a time in everyone’s life where we are no longer able to serve as stewards ourselves and we must determine how, when and to whom we will transfer the stewardship of what God has entrusted to us. That is what estate planning and planned giving is all about – a process of determining to whom we will transfer stewardship of our property when we are no longer in a position to exercise stewardship on our own. Estate planning is one of the most important acts of stewardship a Christian will ever undertake.
A proper estate plan should accomplish the following:
- Express God’s plan for stewardship
- Transfer to individuals and charitable beneficiaries the assets which God has entrusted you.
- Transfer your estate in a tax-efficient manner with as little heartache, cost and delay as possible.
A unique option in estate planning is to “add another child” to your estate. The idea is to “adopt” one or more ministries that you would like to remember in your estate and treat them as you would one of your children. This way all those in life who have special meaning to you receive special, heart-felt consideration.
How to Get Started
Estate planning should be done by an attorney or financial planner who understands the legal documents and laws related to estate planning. For this reason, you should contact your tax advisor or CPA for questions. The church’s Financial Office can also help you by providing names of those who specialize in estate planning.
If you have questions, please contact Chip Evans at 502.239.7711 or cevans@highview.org.
