Estate Plans

When you include AAS in your estate plans, you help ensure that our organization can continue its vital work for years to come.

Planned giving allows you to integrate your charitable goals with your overall financial, tax, and estate planning objectives, maximizing benefits for both you and AAS. By carefully planning your will, trust, insurance policy, or other financial vehicles and naming AAS as a beneficiary, you can support our mission while receiving valuable tax advantages.

Wills and Bequests

Leaving funds to AAS is a meaningful way to ensure our future financial stability while potentially reducing your estate tax burden. Because a bequest to AAS is fully deductible for estate tax purposes, it may place your estate in a lower tax bracket. Bequests may include cash, property, or appreciated securities.

An unrestricted gift allows AAS to direct funds to the programs most urgently in need. You may also choose to designate a specific purpose for your gift. If you plan to make a restricted bequest, please contact AAS to ensure we can honor the conditions in your will.

Suggested Wording for a Specific Bequest

• “I give [dollar amount] to the American Association of Suicidology, a non-profit corporation with its principal office at 4242 Carlisle Pike Suite 101B Camp Hill, PA 17011, or its successor, to be used for the general purposes of the organization.”

Suggested Wording for a Residual Bequest

• “All the rest, residue, and remainder of my estate, both real and personal, I give, devise, and bequeath to the American Association of Suicidology, a non-profit corporation with its principal office at 4242 Carlisle Pike Suite 101B Camp Hill, PA 17011, or its successor, to be used for the general purposes of the organization.”

Gift Planning Options

Charitable Remainder Trust

A Charitable Remainder Trust allows you to fund a trust that provides income to designated beneficiaries for life or for a set number of years. After that period, the remaining assets are distributed to AAS or other charitable organizations.

For donors with highly appreciated or low-income-producing assets, this arrangement can reduce capital gains taxes. The asset is transferred into a tax-exempt trust, allowing the trustee to sell, reinvest, and increase income potential without immediate tax consequences. Several types of charitable remainder trusts can be established with AAS as a beneficiary.

Charitable Remainder Unitrust

This trust provides annual income to the donor for life. The donor receives a fixed percentage of the trust’s fair market value, recalculated each year. As the trust’s value fluctuates, so does the annual income. After the donor’s lifetime, the remainder passes to AAS.

Charitable Remainder Annuity Trust

This trust operates similarly to a unitrust but provides a fixed annual annuity payment. The payout amount remains constant, regardless of fluctuations in the trust’s value.

Charitable Lead Trust

This trust is the opposite of a charitable remainder trust. AAS receives income for a specified number of years, after which the remaining trust assets pass to your heirs. This is an excellent way to support AAS during your lifetime while preserving assets for your family.

Life Insurance

Life insurance is one of the simplest forms of planned giving. Many individuals own policies they no longer need for their original purposes. Contributing a policy to AAS may qualify you for a tax deduction equal to its full cash value.

Options include:

• Transferring policy ownership to AAS
• Naming AAS as a primary or secondary beneficiary

To learn more about planned giving, please contact:

Robert Coffey, Director of Development
rcoffey@suicidology.org

It is recommended that you consult your financial planner, tax advisor, or legal advisor when considering a planned gift to AAS.