Individuals who might be concerned about supporting their family members, outliving their money, or not having enough left over to pay for health care may be surprised to learn that some of their concerns can be alleviated by carefully planned and constructed charitable gifts to the University of Hartford.

Charitable gift annuities can provide financial support for retirees and elderly dependents by generating predictable sources of income and a current income-tax deduction, often by using low-yielding, appreciated assets such as stocks or other readily marketable securities.

Another option, charitable remainder trusts, can be designed to liquidate less readily marketable assets such as real property (a second home, for instance) or tangible personal property (e.g., artwork, patents, collections); diversify the investment of the principal; avoid capital gains taxes; and generate an income stream from an asset that had not previously produced any income. This extra income can come in handy for seniors faced with increasing medical costs.

Although many Individual Retirement Accounts (IRAs) have been hit hard by the recent volatility in the stock market, retirees may still realize an advantage from the reinstated Charitable IRA Rollover provision that was extended by the "Bailout" legislation. For nonitemizers, qualified charitable distributions from IRAs eliminate the need for donors to claim an income-tax charitable deduction. Consequently, nonitemizers can enjoy the equivalent of a charitable deduction. In fact, some donors who were itemizing for the sole purpose of claiming deductions for their charitable gifts may no longer need to do so if they fund their gifts from their IRAs.

And best of all, the net result of these widely used, straightforward, and nongimmicky gift-planning tools is the charitable benefit that will be received by the University of Hartford in the future, perhaps just in time to help us weather the next economic downturn.

If you or your financial advisor would like to take advantage of the planning opportunities discussed above, please contact Peter H. Congleton, director of planned giving, at 860.768.2415. Information is also available on our website at www.hartford.edu/plannedgiving.