Good News in 2023
Rates for Charitable Gift Annuities (also known as CGAs) are up this year. That’s good news if you wish to make a legacy gift to Shelburne Farms that pays you a steady income for life. A CGA is an arrangement between a donor and a nonprofit in which the donor receives regular lifetime payments based on the value of assets transferred. Working with the Vermont Community Foundation you can create a CGA that pays you a fixed income and ultimately benefits Shelburne Farms. The process is simple.
New for 2023: if you are 70 ½ or older you can fund a CGA with a one-time qualified charitable distribution (QCD) of up to $50,000 from your IRA (up to $100,000 per couple!). Here’s how Emily & Paul Morrow are taking advantage of this taxwise gift strategy.
Emily and Paul Morrow enjoy the best of all worlds. After successful careers practicing law and medicine in Vermont, they’ve lived the past 14 years as residents of New Zealand where Emily is a legal consultant and Paul a forensic pathologist.
The Morrows return to Vermont in the summer. You may run into Emily walking the trails at Shelburne Farms or find Paul enjoying the sunset from their home overlooking Lake Champlain in Shelburne.
“I look at my life in chapters,” recalls Emily, who was a practicing tax attorney for 25 years and served on the Shelburne Farms board from 1987 to 2005. She and Paul have been supporting Shelburne Farms for more than three decades.
When they moved abroad, Emily launched a consulting business and now she is preparing to be a full time student at the University of Auckland enrolled in a masters program in counseling. “I’ve always been interested in psychology and there’s a shortage of mental health counselors in New Zealand.” Emily and Paul are helping to fund this next chapter of life with quarterly payments from a Charitable Gift Annuity established to benefit Shelburne Farms.
Motivated by 2023 changes signed into law through the SECURE 2.0 Act, Paul made a one-time qualified charitable distribution from his retirement account directly to the Vermont Community Foundation to fund a Charitable Gift Annuity to benefit Shelburne Farms. Had he taken the amount directly from his IRA as a required minimum distribution, the Morrows would have been responsible to pay income tax on that distribution. But, because they are charitably inclined and established a CGA, their tax liability is reduced and paid over their lifetime when annuity payments are received. Now that’s taxwise giving! This is the Morrow's second Charitable Gift Annuity to benefit Shelburne Farms through the Vermont Community Foundation.
Questions? To learn more about establishing a CGA that pays you income for life and then benefits Shelburne Farms, contact Sue Dixon: sdixon@shelburnefarms.org 802-985-0322.