ESTATE PLANNING GUIDE We are here to help you plan

Did you know that approximately 70% of Americans have no Will?  Without a Will, there are some disadvantages:

1. The State has made a Will for you and you may not like what it says.
2. Your spouse will not automatically inherit everything. 
3. The courts, not your family, have control of your money and property (estate), which are distributed according to inflexible state laws rather than your desires.
4. If you are married and you and your spouse die together, you will not have a say about who will raise your minor children. The courts will decide and may appoint someone as a guardian whose values and lifestyle are different from yours.
5. The courts can choose a stranger or someone whom you would not want to serve to handle the settlement of your estate, and it may be expensive.
6. You will not have the opportunity to leave a charitable bequest to your favorite charities. 
7. If you have minor children, money can be tied up in the courts that may be needed for their care. 
8. When each child reaches the age of majority (age 18 in some states), he or she receives an inheritance all at once in a lump sum. 

Is the thought of estate and financial planning overwhelming? We can help! Contact us to provide you with an Estate Planning Guide packed with tips and strategies to help you plan or update your will or trust and secure your future. By having the Estate Planning Guide completed, you will save time and money on attorney fees.

To get your free copy, please contact me at jcruz@hartnell.edu or my cell at 831-444-2446. 

PLANNING FOR THE FUTURE The benefit of a bequest

Thank you for your generous support of our organization and our charitable mission. Your gifts are an important and significant affirmation of your trust and lasting confidence in our organization. With your help, our work will continue well into the future.

As someone who plans well and looks to the future, we would like to ask you to consider complementing your annual gifts with a long-term investment in our mission. You can increase the impact of your giving and leave a lasting legacy by including a testamentary gift, sometimes referred to as a bequest, to Hartnell College Foundation in your will or estate plan.

The benefit of a bequest is that it will not change your lifestyle. You can choose to leave cash, stock, real estate, a percentage of your IRA, or your estate to Hartnell College Foundation in your will, while also continuing to control and use your assets. Should you choose to include us in your plans, your gift will make a lasting difference to those we serve.

If you need assistance with estate planning, we have resources that can help you and your attorney.

Please do not hesitate to contact me at 831-444-2446 or email me at jcruz@hartnell.edu with questions or to let us know how we can serve you.

ENDOWMENTS Plan for your life’s journey

We ask that you consider making a gift to fund a life income arrangement, such as a charitable gift annuity or charitable remainder unitrust. The benefits to you may include lifetime payments and tax savings. After you have received all payments, the remainder assists us in furthering our cause.

To make an even greater impact on our work, you can designate your gift to our endowment. Contact us for a free illustration of these plans to see how you could benefit and create a lasting legacy to sustain our work.

Call or email us so we can give you directions for a smooth journey. Contact our VP of Advancement and Development/Executive Director for the Foundation, Jackie Cruz at jcruz@hartnell.edu or call 831-444-2446.

A BENEFICIARY DESIGNATION GIFT TO IMPACT OUR WORK
A tax-wise way to leave a legacy

Etta and her late husband Luther had been longtime supporters of an organization. She had been thinking about how she could make a significant gift to support their work. She met with her attorney to explain her goals and describe her assets. Originally, she thought about leaving her IRA to her kids and other assets to charity.

Her attorney suggested a different strategy. He explained that if her children inherited the IRA, the estate would pay estate taxes, and her children would pay income taxes on
the IRA. But, by giving the IRA to charity and other assets to her children, Etta could still provide a nice inheritance to her children while avoiding the income tax!

Etta contacted her IRA custodian, who sent her an IRA beneficiary designation form. She completed the form, named the organization as the primary beneficiary of her IRA, and mailed the form back. Etta was thrilled with the plan.

If you are interested in or have questions about making a beneficiary designation gift to impact the work of our organization, please contact Vice President of Advancement/Development and Executive Director, Jackie Cruz at (831) 444-2446 or email jcruz@hartnell.edu to help you plan for your future.

GIVE YOUR IRA WINGS

If you feel weighed down with the thought of taking your IRA required minimum distribution, then give it wings. Rather than take the RMD, take your IRA to new heights by making the distribution directly to our organization instead.

There is nothing like the feeling when an airplane’s wheels leave the ground. It means you are on the way to your next vacation, business meeting, or family reunion. “Takeoff” means something great is about to begin.

As you come in for a landing this year and prepare to take off for the next, it is worth a few moments to make sure you touch down safely and prepare for your next flight with good estate planning.

Avoid the turbulence of paying taxes.  Call or email us so we can give you directions for a smooth flight. Contact our VP of Advancement and Development/Executive Director for the Foundation, Jackie Cruz at jcruz@hartnell.edu or call 831-444-2446.

PLANNED GIVING Estate Planning Made Easy

In a nutshell, estate planning is as simple as what you want to be done with what you own. The good news is that you can provide for the people and causes important to you by taking simple steps now.

While an attorney should always draft your will, we can help demystify the process and prepare you for meeting your attorney with these simple steps:

1. Itemize your assets
2. Organize your estate
3. Write down questions
4. Review your plans for family
5. Consider charity
6. Visit your attorney
7. Update your plan

Creating your plan for the future can be easy and even enjoyable. Call Vice President of Advancement/Development and Executive Director, Jackie Cruz at (831) 444-2446 or email jcruz@hartnell.edu to help you plan for your future.

FOOD FOR THOUGHT Plan for your Future

When we go shopping, it is best to have a list. When we do, we don’t forget to pick up that needed item, and we are also less likely to buy too much. Lists make sense. Planning pays.

When you think about the important people and charities in your life, have you written a plan to take care of them? If the peace of mind that comes with planning and the possibility of significant tax savings appeal to you, we have done the work for you. We make it easy.

Just like a store, we have shelves of ideas, such as charitable gift annuity, IRA rollovers, beneficiary designations, and more. We can even send you our complimentary estate planning kit. Our guides and ideas come with no cost and there is never any obligation. Call or email us to help you prepare a beautiful list for life.

BEQUESTS The easiest way to give

A bequest is one of the easiest gifts you can make to significantly impact our work. Your estate planning attorney can include a provision in your will that leaves a lasting gift to our organization. Your bequest could be a gift of specific assets (such as a vehicle, artwork, or coin collection), a dollar amount ($100, $1,000, or 10,000), or a percentage of your estate (3%, 10%, or even 25%).

A bequest could also be made from the residue of your estate or what is left after all gifts have been made to your heirs.

A charitable bequest is an easy way for you to help us in our work and benefit. Here are some of the benefits of bequest giving:

• It costs you nothing today to make a bequest
• Your bequest can be changed down the road
• You can still benefit your heirs with specific gifts
• A bequest may produce estate tax savings
• You can leave a legacy through a bequest

A popular gift to consider is a bequest from your IRA. If you leave your IRA to your children, your heirs could face a significant tax. Talk with your estate planner about the types of assets to leave to your family that can produce little or no tax. Then consider making a bequest of your IRA to us. We will receive the full proceeds free of tax and can use this gift to help further our mission.

Please contact your plan custodian to designate us as a beneficiary of your IRA.
A bequest is a wonderful way for you to help further the work of our organization and its mission.

A GIFT OF INSURANCE 
It’s easier than you think

At age 65, Melinda, a surviving spouse, was retiring and looking forward to spending more time with her grandchildren and the local charity where she volunteered.  Melinda had purchased a life insurance policy many years ago naming her children as beneficiaries. One of her children had unexpectedly passed away, while the other continued to work and accumulate significant assets. Melinda wondered what could be done with her insurance policy that was no longer needed for its intended use.

Melinda learned that the policy could be gifted to fund a charitable gift annuity that would pay her fixed payments for life. Based on the premiums Melinda had paid, she would receive a nice charitable deduction. Best of all, Melinda knew that the policy proceeds would be used well by the charitable organization.

MAKING A GIFT OF 
LIFE INSURANCE 
It’s easy to make an outright gift of a life insurance policy. Simply contact your insurance company and fill out the proper change of ownership form, designating our organization as the new owner. If we decide to hold onto the policy, you may make cash contributions each year to cover the policy premiums. You may be entitled to an additional charitable income tax deduction for each of these gifts.

BEQUEST OF INSURANCE 
Life insurance proceeds can make a wonderful gift to charity. The gift of life insurance can be made by simply naming us as the beneficiary of your policy. Your life insurance proceeds will help further our good work and your estate may benefit from an estate tax charitable deduction based on the value of the proceeds paid.

LET US HELP YOU
To learn more about the benefits of making a gift of your assets to support our cause, please contact Director of Philanthropy, Kristine Edmunds at kedmunds@hartnell.edu or by phone at (831) 755-6903. We can work with you and your advisors to develop a plan that meets your goals.

REQUIRED MINIMUM DISTRIBUTION Making an impact through giving

Are you looking for a way to make a significant impact in support of the Foundation’s work but do not know how? An option is to make a direct gift from Your IRA.

IRA Rollover Gift
If you are at least 70 ½ years old, you can make a gift of up to $100,000 per year from your IRA account directly to the Hartnell College Foundation. This may be the easiest way to make a gift to help our cause. Because your gift may count toward your required minimum distribution, it can reduce your income and taxes this year.

Let us help you
To learn more about the benefits of making a gift of your assets to support our cause, please contact Director of Philanthropy, Kristine Edmunds at kedmunds@hartnell.edu or by phone at (831) 755-6903. We can work with you and your advisors to develop a plan that meets your goals.