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Charitable Lead Trust

A charitable lead trust is a way you can support Wheaton College for a number of years and pass on your assets to your heirs while eliminating gift or estate taxes.

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Benefits of a charitable lead trust

  • Receive a gift or estate tax charitable deduction.
  • Pass inheritance on to your heirs at a reduced or zero cost.
  • Establish a vehicle from which you can make annual gifts to Wheaton.

Charitable lead trust video

How a charitable lead trust works

  1. You make a contribution of your property to fund a trust that pays Wheaton income for a number of years.
  2. You receive a gift or estate tax deduction at the time of your gift.
  3. After a period of time, your heirs receive the trust assets plus any additional growth in value.

Lead trust options

  • Zero Tax Plan—It is possible to set up a lead trust that will allow you to transfer assets to your heirs with zero transfer taxes. The IRS assumes that a lead trust is only earning at the current low federal rate. If the actual investments of the trust produce a higher return than the payments made to Wheaton over the term of the trust, then the full value of the trust may be transferred to heirs with zero gift tax.
  • FLP/Lead Trust Plan—To further discount your gift to your heirs, you may consider first transferring your real estate or other assets into a family limited partnership (FLP), which will fund your lead trust. The combination of the FLP, the lead trust and a gift exemption can permit the lead trust to pay income to Wheaton for a number of years and potentially transfer substantial assets tax-free to your beneficiaries.
  • Increasing Payment Lead Trust—With volatility in the stock market, you may want to consider creating a lead trust that makes fixed payments of increasing amounts to the college over time. Because the payments to Wheaton are fixed, your family ultimately benefits from any growth in the trust. Low payouts in early years allow the trust to grow, thus allowing protection should the economy produce below-average returns in the future.
  • Grantor Lead Trust—A grantor lead trust permits you to transfer your cash or assets to a trust that will make gifts to Wheaton for a number of years. At the end of the trust term, you receive the assets back from the trust.

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