It’s easy to overlook the benefits of giving a life insurance policy to Children’s Hope. If you are carrying more insurance coverage than your family needs, you may want to consider donating an extra, unneeded whole life policy that is paid-up. If you transfer all rights and incidents of ownership of your policy to Children’s Hope, you will be eligible for a charitable income tax deduction equal to the policy’s cash surrender value or cost basis, whichever is less. The insurance policy must be whole life, not term insurance. The value of your gift for gift crediting purposes will be the cash surrender value of your policy on the date of transfer.

In certain cases, Children’s Hope will accept gifts of insurance policies for which continuing premiums are due. If you irrevocably transfer all rights and incidents of ownership of such a policy to Children’s Hope, then we may elect to continue to pay the premiums. You may take an initial deduction for the cash value of the policy, and you may deduct any additional gifts you make to Children’s Hope in lieu of premiums.  Children’s Hope would reserve the right to cash in any policy it owns at any time at its sole discretion.

Of course, you may also designate Children’s Hope as the revocable beneficiary of a life insurance policy at any time. Such a designation will not, however, provide you with any immediate tax benefits.

Benefits

• You receive gift credit and an immediate income tax deduction for the cash surrender value of the policy (technically, the “interpolated terminal reserve value” of the policy).
• In some cases, you can use the cash value in your policy to fund a life-income gift, such as a deferred gift annuity.
• You can have the satisfaction of making a significant gift now to help orphaned and at-risk children without adversely affecting your cash flow.