Yesterday morning I went to a breakfast for a new charitable fund. The "Insuring a Better World Fund" will accept donations of unwanted life insurance policies and the donor can direct where the death benefit will go. The donor gets an income tax donation on the policy. The fund pays all premiums. This is a very simple explanation.
Over the last few years, some of my clients have abandoned or cashed in their life insurance policies that they no longer wanted or no longer wanted to pay the premium. Rather than getting a cash payment of $50,000 they could opt to give the policy to charity, getting a charitable deduction of $100,000, and the charity eventually getting the death benefit of $400,000. Not all clients would chose that option, but some would.
This charitable fund is hoping to donate 2 or more billion dollars to charities over the next 20 or so years. This is a great goal and can do lots of good work in the world.
If you have a life insurance pollicy that you no longer want, please contact me to discuss your oprtions. As with all estate planning, there are many options and the right option for a given person is not necessarily the right option for someone else.