Retirement Assets and Life Insurance Gifts
Two of the simplest gifts anyone can make to the seminary, and both are made with a beneficiary form rather than a check.
A retirement account or a life insurance policy passes to whoever is named on the beneficiary form held by the custodian or the insurer. That form governs, no matter what your will says. Which means that naming us on it takes one page, costs nothing today, and can be changed at any time for any reason.
Retirement assets in particular are often the wisest thing a person can leave to the Church. Money in an IRA, 401(k), or 403(b) has never been taxed. Left to your children, much of it is taxable to them as income when they withdraw it. Left to the seminary, none of it is. The same dollar simply goes further here than it would anywhere else in your estate, which is why many advisors suggest leaving retirement assets to charity and other property to family.
Your attorney or tax advisor can confirm how any of this applies to your situation.
A custodian or insurance company will not tell us that you have named the seminary, and in most cases we will not learn of it until the gift arrives, sometimes years later. That means we cannot thank you, and we cannot honor your intention if you had one. A short call or email now costs you nothing and lets us record your wishes properly.
Ask your plan administrator, IRA custodian, or insurance company for a beneficiary designation form, or change it online. Most now handle it entirely on their website in a few minutes.
Use the full legal name and tax identification number below. Institutions with similar names exist, and an imprecise designation is the most common reason a gift is delayed or misdirected. You may name the seminary for the whole account or for a percentage of it.
Call or email the Office of Development. Nothing is binding and you keep the right to change your mind, but telling us lets us thank you now and record any purpose you have in mind for the gift.
Give these details to your plan administrator, IRA custodian, or insurance company.
If your form allows only a limited number of characters, use St. Vincent de Paul Regional Seminary with the tax identification number. The number is what identifies us without ambiguity.
Retirement accounts and insurance policies pass by beneficiary designation, not by will. A bequest in your will does not reach them. If you intend to leave either one to the seminary, it has to be done on the form the custodian or insurer holds.
You do not have to choose between your family and the seminary. Many donors name the seminary for ten or twenty percent of an account and leave the balance to their children. Percentages also age well, since they adjust themselves as the account grows or shrinks.
Many people carry a life insurance policy bought decades ago for a purpose that has since passed, when children were small or a mortgage was young. If your survivors no longer need it, naming the seminary as beneficiary turns a policy you are quietly maintaining into a substantial future gift.
Naming the seminary as beneficiary keeps the policy entirely in your control. Transferring ownership of the policy to the seminary is a different step, generally irrevocable, and it may allow a charitable deduction during your lifetime. Your advisor can tell you whether that makes sense for you, and we are glad to speak with them.
Naming the seminary as a beneficiary commits you to nothing. You may change or remove the designation at any time, without telling us and without explanation. Circumstances change, and no one here will think less of you for it.
You may also give from your IRA during your lifetime, excluded from your income entirely, and see the good your gift does. See Qualified Charitable Distributions. Many donors do both, giving annually now and naming the seminary as beneficiary for what remains.
The seminary's endowment is a separate legal entity with its own name and tax identification number. If you intend a beneficiary designation to become permanent endowed principal rather than support for the year it arrives, please call us before you complete the form so the designation names the right entity from the start.
Nothing on this page is tax or legal advice. Rules on retirement accounts and insurance change, and they apply differently to every household. Please confirm the details with your own attorney or tax advisor.
If you are considering either gift, or simply want to talk it through before you speak with your advisor, the Office of Development is happy to help. There is no obligation of any kind.
Contact the Development Office
