A gift provided in your will is an excellent and uncomplicated way to support AAVS and help the animals. It is not necessary to have a large estate to be able to include AAVS in your will; indeed, many of the bequests we receive are modest.

To incorporate AAVS into your will, consult your attorney who may advise that you execute a new will or amend an existing one by adding a codicil, with wording such as:

“I give/bequeath/devise* to The American Anti-Vivisection Society, a not-for-profit corporation located at 801 Old York Road, Suite 204, Jenkintown, PA 19046-1611, the sum of $____, (and/or describe the securities or real estate) for the general purposes of the Society.”

* A bequest is a gift of cash or securities, while a devise is a gift of interest in real estate.

As an alternative to specifying a dollar amount, you may elect to name AAVS to receive a percentage of your estate or the residue, the amount left over after other bequests are made.

Subjected to multiple layers of taxation, retirement funds are the most heavily taxed assets that can be passed to family. However, leaving a retirement fund to AAVS will result in a charitable deduction that offsets estate tax and eliminates income tax on the distribution. Alternately, you may wish to designate AAVS as a beneficiary to receive a portion of the income from your retirement fund, beyond what is needed to support you and your family comfortably.

Establishing a charitable gift annuity (CGA) provides much-needed financial support for the animals as well as lifetime income and tax benefits for you or your loved ones. CGA donors generally tend to be retired, desire to save taxes and increase cash flow, and seek the security of guaranteed income for themselves or their family. Your gift annuity agreement pays a fixed amount of money to you for life in return for a transfer of cash, marketable securities, or other assets. Payments may be received monthly or quarterly, via check or electronic fund transfer.

A charitable gift annuity can benefit you under any of the following conditions:

• You seek fixed income unaffected by fluctuating interest rates and stock prices
• You want assured payments to a surviving spouse or other family member without the delay of probate proceedings
• You are seeking to increase cash flow because of declining interest rates on fixed-income investments
• You hesitate to sell stock or mutual fund shares for reinvestment because of capital gain taxes

A contribution of life insurance will permit you to benefit AAVS without invading capital or redirecting other estate assets. You can donate a fully paid or partially paid policy, naming AAVS as the irrevocable owner and beneficiary. This reduces your taxable estate and also yields an income tax deduction. And, if you are still paying outstanding premiums, they may be deducted as charitable contributions.

You may also designate AAVS as the beneficiary of a new life insurance policy. For relatively low cost, life insurance allows people of modest means to make a larger gift to AAVS than through a bequest. If AAVS is also named the owner of the policy, you may take an income tax deduction for all premium payments.

Life insurance proceeds are not subject to probate, creditors’ claims, contests by heirs, or public access through probate court records. Life insurance guarantees the size of your gift in advance, since AAVS will receive the face amount of the policy promptly, upon death of the policyholder. All of these factors make life insurance a simple and attractive way of contributing.

Providing AAVS with a gift of assets that have appreciated in value, such as stocks, bonds, and mutual fund shares, allows you to avoid applicable capital gains taxes.

You may also make an immediate or future gift of your residence, vacation home, commercial realty, farm, acreage, or undeveloped lot. This creates an income tax deduction for you and also eliminates the capital gains tax on the property’s increase in value.

Charitable remainder trusts combine the benefits of a gift and an investment, allowing you to maintain an income stream for yourself and/or another beneficiary, and then provide the remaining assets to AAVS upon the beneficiary’s passing. Income allocation is dependent on the type of remainder trust which best suits your need:

• Annuity Trust: pays a fixed amount of the annual income from the trust assets.
• Unitrust: pays a set percentage of the value of the trust assets. Unlike annuity trusts, you may add additional funds to a unitrust over time, corresponding to changes in your financial situation.

Remainder trusts allow for immediate charitable income tax deductions and may help avoid or delay capital gains taxes.

The opposite of a remainder trust, a charitable lead trust pays a percentage of the value of its assets to AAVS for a specified number of years. At the end of the trust term, remaining assets and any realized growth are passed to you or your family. A lead trust greatly reduces estate tax, and any subsequent growth is passed to your family free of both gift and estate taxes.