How You Can Help Educate Leaders For Our Changing World
	The Annual Fund
	Planned Giving

One of the simplest ways to remember the Franciscan School of Theology in your estate plan is to make FST a beneficiary of all or part of an existing life insurance policy. Follow these steps:

1. Ask your insurance agency for a Change of Beneficiary form.
2. Fill it out, naming "The Franciscan School of Theology, Berkeley California" as a beneficiary of the policy, either for a percentage or specific amount of the proceeds.
3. Let FST know that you have made the change.

Whatever benefit FST receives will pass from the policy directly to FST free of estate tax. Yes, insurance is considered part of your estate and may be subject to estate tax, but not if it is designated for the FST.

There are other ways of using insurance to make planned gifts to FST easier on heirs. Some donors share some of the tax and income advantages provided by a charitable trust with their heirs by purchasing an insurance policy that will, in effect, restore their inheritance.

Along with philanthropic motivation, there are four marks that single out candidates for the charitable trust/insurance trust strategy:

1. Insurability, i.e., the premiums are affordable:
2. High exposure to capital gains tax;
3. High exposure to estate tax;
4. Increased income resulting from the sale and reinvestment of whatever is contributed to the trust.

When donors score high in all four categories and whose goal is to make sure their heirs receive a reasonable inheritance, the benefits of the charitable trust offset the cost of the insurance, allowing the donor to provide for their favorite charities without disinheriting heirs. Weakness in any of these four areas diminishes the appeal of the insurance trust/charitable trust strategy.

You should talk to you advisor about how your estate may be affected by this strategy.