What are they?
Giving through a charitable remainder trust allows your client (or someone they select) to receive income for the life, knowing that whatever remains will benefit their community. They do this by placing cash, property, or other assets into a trust that distributes to the “income beneficiary” an annual income for life or for the duration of the trust. Your client receives an immediate tax deduction for the present value of the gift in the year the gift is made. After death or the end of a specified trust term (up to 20 years), the remainder of the trust transfers to a fund your client has named at the Foundation or to a specific charitable organization. Grants from the fund will be make in accordance with their interests.

Highlights:

• Your client may choose to receive a fixed income or receive distributions that vary with the value of the trust.  
  
  
• The income beneficiary can be your client or someone else, including a sibling, dependent parent, friend, or former employee.
  
  
• A charitable remainder trust is particularly useful for people who own securities or real estate that have increased in value but earn little income, since the assets—once placed in the trusts—can be sold and reinvested free of capital gains tax.

For more information about how MCF can partner with you to serve your clients, send us an e-mail or call Aviva Shiff Boedecker, director of gift planning, at 415.464.2516. You may also want to request a copy of You Have a Partner: An Introduction to the Marin Community Foundation for Professional Advisors. This guide provides an overview of the many ways we work with advisors to help them meet their clients' charitable needs.