You may wish to include the Wheelchair Foundation as a beneficiary in your will. The federal government encourages such gifts of bequest by allowing unlimited estate tax charitable deduction. To make a bequest to the Wheelchair Foundation in your will the following language may be helpful. It is strongly suggested that you show this language to your attorney “I give, devise, and bequeath to the Wheelchair Foundation of Danville, California the sum of $__.__” (or otherwise describe the gift and specify by percentage of estate).

There are three distinct ways you can make a bequest in your will:

• Specific Bequest. You can designate a specific dollar amount, specific percentage, or specific property to the Wheelchair Foundation.

• The Residual Bequest. Your estate will pay all debts, taxes and specific requests. The remaining amount, the residue, will be transferred to the Wheelchair Foundation.

• Contingent Bequest. You can ask that the Wheelchair Foundation receive all or a portion of your estate under certain circumstances. For example you can name the Wheelchair Foundation as a beneficiary to your estate if there are no surviving family members. Childless couples sometimes provide the entire estate to the surviving spouse or, if the spouse does not survive, to the Wheelchair Foundation.

You want to insure that the designations in your will get to the intended beneficiaries. Please see your lawyer or your Certified Public Accountant and discuss your specific request with them.

You may transfer assets to the Wheelchair Foundation now and in return you and/or survivor can receive income for life. This is a financial planning tool that allows you to make a meaningful gift to the Wheelchair Foundation during your lifetime without sacrifice. You can get the current income tax and financial benefits from this gift. It is called Life Income Gift. The way it works is simple, you irrevocably transfer some assets to the Wheelchair Foundation now and in return you and the survivor, if you wish, receive income for life. As a result these assets are used by the Wheelchair Foundation to carry out our mission to provide wheelchairs to people with disabilities throughout the world.

By making a Life Income Gift to the Wheelchair Foundation you receive benefits in addition to the pleasure of knowing the good work your gift will do.

These benefits include:

• A charitable deduction in the year you make the gift for the present value of your gift to our right to eventually receive the assets.

• Substantial income tax savings increase your effective yield.

• Your income can be taxed more favorably in some plans.

• Your probate and estate administration costs may be reduced.

The charitable gift of annuity works as follows:

The Wheelchair Foundation agrees to pay you and a survivor or other beneficiary a fixed amount for your lifetime. The transfer is part gift and part purchase of an annuity as the rate of return is attractive and the payments are guaranteed for life.

You may no longer need the life insurance you purchased years ago for your children or other family members. If this is your situation, please consider donating the policy to the Wheelchair Foundation. You may claim a charitable deduction for approximately the policy’s cash surrender value and the proceeds are completely removed from your estate. The Wheelchair Foundation will insure that these funds are used to purchase wheelchairs for use by the disabled in a developing country.

Your IRA assets will be transferred to a Charitable Remainder Trust. The trust will provide Life Income to the beneficiary and then an eventual gift to the Wheelchair Foundation.

Today many individuals have large, qualified retirement plans such as an IRA, 401K or Keogh plan. These assets have been growing tax free for years. Once the owner begins to receive from the plan, there is a taxable event and eventually the plan will be included in the owner’s taxable estate. To avoid these tax consequences, a retirement plan may be donated to the Wheelchair Foundation.

Once you make your gift of retirement plan to create a Charitable Remainder Trust through your will, it works like this: Your IRA assets will be transferred to a Charitable Remainder Trust. There is no tax due because the charitable remainder trust is a tax-exempt entity. The trust will provide life income to the beneficiary, for example your child, with an eventual gift to the Wheelchair Foundation. The beneficiary will pay income tax for the distribution from the trust. Your estate will receive an estate tax charitable deduction for the value of the Wheelchair Foundation’s right to eventually receive the trust assets.

Individuals with large estates can use a Charitable Lead Trust to benefit the Wheelchair Foundation and pass principal to family members with little or no tax penalties.

Charitable Lead Trusts are complicated financial instruments. You should seek the advice of your attorney or your CPA.

The Wheelchair Foundation appreciates your interest in making a planned gift to help us with our mission to provide wheelchairs to people in developing countries.

For more information about methods of planned giving or to answer any questions, please give Jeff Juri a call at the Wheelchair Foundation at (877) 378-3839.