Beneficiary Designation Gift

A beneficiary designation gift is a simple way to make a gift to support Wheaton by designating the college as a beneficiary of your retirement, investment or bank account or your life insurance policy.

Benefits of a beneficiary designation gift

Support the causes that you care about.
Continue to use your account as long as you need to.
Simplify your planning and avoid expensive legal fees.
Reduce the burden of taxes on your family and heirs.
Receive an estate tax charitable deduction.

Beneficiary designation video

How a beneficiary designation gift works

To make your gift, contact our broker, banker or insurance agent who helps you with your account or insurance policy.
Ask them to send you a new beneficiary designation form.
Complete the form, sign it and send it back to your broker, banker or agent.
When you pass away, your account or insurance policy will be paid or transferred to Wheaton, consistent with your beneficiary designation.

Important considerations

If you are interested in making a gift but are concerned about your future needs, note that beneficiary designation gifts are flexible. After you complete the beneficiary designation form, you can continue to take distributions or withdrawals from your retirement, investment or bank account and continue to freely use your account. You can change your mind at any time for any reason.

Flexibility—Most beneficiary designation forms are very flexible. You can name Wheaton College as a "full," "partial," "primary" or "contingent" beneficiary.
Family/Heirs Considerations—Beneficiary designation gifts allow you to provide for those you love and support the causes that matter most to you. You could, for example, name your spouse as the "primary" beneficiary and each of your children and Wheaton College as "partial contingent" beneficiaries. With this arrangement, if your spouse survives you, he or she would receive the account. If not, the account or policy would be paid out to your children and Wheaton College in whatever shares (or percentages) that you documented on your designation form.
Terminology—Beneficiary designation gifts are simple and straightforward. Common terminology includes "beneficiary designation" but also includes "payable on death" or "transfer on death." The term "beneficiary designation" is most commonly used when naming beneficiaries of retirement plans or life insurance policies. The term payable on death (POD) typically involves the designation of a beneficiary of a checking account, savings account or certificates of deposit. Transfer on death (TOD) often involves the designation of a beneficiary for stocks, bonds or mutual funds.
Beneficiary Designations and Real Estate—Some states even allow "beneficiary designation deeds" or "transfer on death deeds," which would allow you to name Wheaton as the survivor beneficiary of your home, farm or other real estate. As with other beneficiary designation gifts, these gifts are revocable by filing a revocation or new beneficiary designation deed.

See how two generous Founders Society member utilized a beneficiary designation at Wheaton to achieve their philanthropic goals.

Contact us

If you have already designated Wheaton as a beneficiary of an asset or as part of your estate plan, please let us know. We would be honored to thank you and welcome you to the Founders Society.

Plan for your future and Wheaton's