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Planned Giving

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Make a Future Gift of Retirement Assets

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IRA web page

Notify us of your Beneficiary Designation

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Thank you for considering a beneficiary designation gift to us. The website link will take you to your retirement plan custodian's website, where you may be able to log in and include Susquehanna University as a designated beneficiary. Another option is to use the phone number to call your retirement plan custodian. They will assist you in updating your beneficiary designation. If you would like to notify us of your generous beneficiary designation, please complete the Notify us of your Beneficiary Designation section.

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Notify us of your IRA gift

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Thank you for considering a IRA gift to us. A sample letter is available to send to your DAF provider. You may save and print the PDF of your letter. If you have email contact information for your DAF provider, you may send a PDF copy of your DAF letter or you may copy and paste the text into an email. You will need to enter the amount of your recommended grant and your DAF account number on the letter before mailing. If you would like to notify us of your generous gift, please complete the Notify us of your DAF Gift section.

Beneficiary Designation Gifts

A beneficiary designation gift is a simple and affordable way to make a gift to support Susquehanna University. You can designate the university as a beneficiary of a retirement, investment or bank account or your life insurance policy.

Donor

Designation Form

Account Custodian

Property
(IRA/Investment)

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
Receive an estate tax charitable deduction

How a beneficiary designation gift works

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

Important considerations for your future

If you are interested in making a gift but are also concerned about your future needs, keep in mind that beneficiary designation gifts are among the most flexible of all charitable gifts. Even after you complete the beneficiary designation form, you can take distributions or withdrawals from your retirement, investment or bank account and continue to freely use your account. You can also change your mind at any time in the future for any reason, including if you have a loved one who needs your financial help.

Sample Beneficiary Designation Gift Scenario

Marla and Wayne purchased a life insurance policy many years ago to create security for their children's future. As the children grew up, married, found good jobs and accumulated significant assets, the insurance was no longer needed for its original purpose.

Marla: We volunteered regularly with a local charity and wanted to know if there was any benefit to giving our policy away to this good cause.

Wayne: I wasn't ready to part with the insurance quite yet. I wanted to preserve the option of giving it to our family if someone needed extra help down the road. We both wondered if there was a way we could commit now to help our favorite charity's work but make our gift at a later date when it was clear the policy wouldn't be used.

The gift planner at their favorite charity told them that they could include a bequest of insurance today that would help achieve their personal and charitable goals. The bequest could be made by simply naming the charity as beneficiary of their policy. With the beneficiary designation unchanged during life, the insurance proceeds would go to help the charity's future work. In addition, their estate could benefit from an estate tax charitable deduction based on the value of the proceeds paid.

Marla: The insurance bequest made sense to us.

Wayne: I also liked the fact that our estate would benefit from tax savings, which would help to preserve other assets intended for our family.

Is a bequest of a life insurance policy right for you?

Creating a bequest of life insurance is an easy gift to establish. You can easily leave a life insurance policy to charity if the policy is no longer needed for its intended purposes by completing a beneficiary designation form. If you have questions about bequests of life insurance policies, please contact us. We would be happy to answer any questions that you have.

*Please note: The names and image above are representative of a typical donor and may or may not be an actual donor to our organization.

Contact us

If you have any questions about leaving a beneficiary designation gift to us, please contact us. We would be happy to assist you.

If you have already designated us as a beneficiary of an asset or as part of your estate plan, please let us know. We would like to recognize you and your family for your gift.

Click here to learn more

Flexibility—Most beneficiary designation forms are very flexible. You can name Susquehanna University as a "full" or "partial" beneficiary of your account or life insurance policy. You can also name Susquehanna University as a "primary" or "contingent" beneficiary.

Family Considerations—Beneficiary designation gifts allow you to provide for family and support the causes that matter most to you. With a designation form you could, for example, name your spouse as the "primary" beneficiary and each of your children and Susquehanna University 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 Susquehanna University in whatever shares (or percentages) that you chose on the 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 (or "POD") typically involves the designation of a beneficiary of a checking account, savings account or certificates of deposit, and transfer on death (or "TOD") often involves the designation of a beneficiary of stocks, bonds or mutual funds.

Additional Materials
To download a brochure and learn more about Beneficiary Designation gifts, click here.
To download a brochure and learn more about TOD gifts, click here.
To download a brochure and learn more about POD gifts, click here.

Beneficiary Designations and Real Estate—Some states even allow "beneficiary designation deeds" or "transfer on death deeds," which would allow you to name Susquehanna University 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.

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