Guidelines For Designing A Charitable Annuity TrustIf you are looking into creating a charitable annuity trust there are several things that you need to decide upon before actually creating your trust. You should be able to answer as many of the following questions and guidelines as possible before actually scheduling an appointment with the attorney of your choice to draw up the paperwork. First before deciding to create a charitable annuity trust, you need to decide if you really want to donate a portion of your estate to a charity. If you are unsure then you should avoid making any decisions for a while. A charitable annuity trust is irrevocable so you cannot change your mind later if you decide that you no longer want to donate part of your estate to a charity. Once the paperwork is signed and the trust is created, you cannot change your mind. This is an absolutely important point to always remember, you can change your mind until the trust is created, but absolutely cannot change your mind afterwards.
Second, you should decide which charity you want to donate to. This could even be a list of several charities, which will share the remainder of your assets. You can select a single charity, or you can select 10 charities. This is entirely up to you and depends heavily upon your individual wishes. Remember, once the trust is created you cannot change the charity that you are donating to unless the original charity ceases to exist, then you are allowed to select a charity to replace the original. Third, you need to decide exactly who you want the beneficiary of the charitable annuity trust to be. Whether you select yourself or someone else, you need to decide upon this. You should ensure that you understand you cannot change your beneficiaries later on. You can select yourself, your spouse, parents, children or even a complete stranger as the beneficiary. Fourth, once you have selected your designated beneficiaries you need to decide how often you want your charitable annuity trust to make payouts to your beneficiaries. Some people choose monthly, others choose quarterly and still others choose yearly. The decision is up to you, however remember if you choose monthly or even quarterly there will be higher administrative costs associated with managing the trust. If you only select yearly there will be fewer payouts and the money will remain in the charitable annuity trust longer allowing a greater return on the investment. Last, you should select a trustee. This is the person or company who will be responsible for managing your charitable annuity trust in the exact manner and guideline that you have set forth. You should select someone that you trust completely and ensure that they understand all of the duties of the position. Also, ensure that they are satisfied with the fees that are earmarked for administrative fees. ning a Charitable Annuity Trust |