SEE ALERT ABOUT GIFT ANNUITIES BELOW

Olive Tree Community

Tomorrow's church - will there be committed and faithful leadership for future generations? What can we do to ensure the availability of excellent leadership for our children, our grandchildren, and their children?

Those who give to Bethany through deferred gift plans assure a valuable legacy - the life and work of future generations of ministers of the Gospel. Such donors are Bethany's Olive Tree Community. The olive tree matures very slowly, so parents plant olive trees for their children and grandchildren. Like the biblical olive tree, which sustained the life of the community by providing food, oil, wood, and fuel, the gifts of these donors plant "trees" for Bethany's future.

Often we hesitate to give as much as we would like to ministry training because we believe our resources are too limited. We fear that unexpected costs may jeopardize our own future or that of our loved ones.

However, it is possible to be both a generous giver and a prudent manager. You can give in support of ministry education and still maintain economic security. Here are several samples of plans through which that may be accomplished:

Will or living trust:

Designate a portion of your estate for ministry training and leadership development at Bethany. For a suggestion on how you might think about that, see an article in a past issue of The Olive Seed, our planned giving newsletter.

Designation of Retirement Account

An increasing number of people hold significant assets in their IRA's or other retirement accounts. Account holders normally indicate on their plan documents where the plan assets should go upon their death. Because of a tax impact known as "income in respect of a decedent," there are advantages to utilizing one's retirement plan as a way to give an estate gift to charity.

For a short period in 2006 and 2007, there was also an option for current utilization of IRA's for charitable purposes. For an update of pending legislative action on temporary renewals of the rollover, click here.

Gift annuity:

By transferring cash or property to an annuity with Bethany, receive a current tax deduction for part of the gift, and also receive a guaranteed periodic fixed payment for life, a portion of which is tax free. Payment rates for a given age are established by the American Council on Gift Annuities. In an early April decision, those rates are being reduced beginning July 1, 2008. NOW IS THE TIME TO ESTABLISH AN ANNUITY WHILE RATES ARE STILL AT THE HIGHER LEVEL.

Charitable remainder unitrust:

Retain an income interest in appreciated securities, property, or cash by transferring the assets to a trust with Bethany. Receive payments based on a percentage of the trust assets as valued annually, and have generous tax benefits as well. There are many other variations on unitrusts as well, all of which produce a current income tax deduction, as well as remove the property from the donor's estate, potentially reducing estate and/or inheritance taxes.

Life insurance:

Name Bethany as the owner and beneficiary of an established or new policy. Give a significant gift, and also receive tax benefits through charitable deductions.

There are numerous other opportunities

. . . in the form of partial gift/partial sale of a business or in the transfer of business interests from one generation to another, or other arrangements in which tax savings from making a gift significantly offset the cost of the gift itself. If you have interest in more details, we can send you our 12 page booklet Charitable Gift Planning. Contact us at any of the addresses or numbers listed below.

For more information about planned giving opportunities, please contact Lowell Flory, Executive Director of Institutional Advancement and Gift Planning, Bethany Theological Seminary, 615 National Road West, Richmond, IN 47374. (800) 287-8822, florylobethanyseminary.edu