Gifts of Real Estate with Retained Benefits

You may prefer to leave real estate through your will, retaining all the rights and privileges of ownership during your life.  If you own your home or farm – or even a vacation home – you additionally can make an immediate gift of the property, obtain an immediate income tax deduction and still continue to use the property for the rest of your life (or for the lives of you and another).  Ask us for an illustration.

An ideal way to use real estate to accomplish your financial objectives and make a gift as well is to set up a charitable remainder unitrust.  This is a trust in which you irrevocably place property, but retain a specified income, usually for life.  At the end of the trust, the trustee distributes the property to organizations you select.  But because you set up the trust now, rather than leave the property through your will, you are entitled to a substantial income tax charitable deduction. 

By setting up a unitrust you can:

• establish an income for life – one that can grow with inflation;
• reinvest a highly appreciated, low-yield asset, without incurring capital gains tax;
• reduce income taxes significantly;
• gain the investment and administrative services of a trustee;
• get rid of the financial and personal burdens of property management;
• make a magnificent charitable contribution.

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