Gift From Will or Trust

Many people ask the question, “if I have given to the Lord’s work during my lifetime why should I be concerned about giving to the Lord’s work at death.  Should not my family be the recipients of our estate?” God commands us in Prov 3:9 to "Honour the LORD with thy substance, and with the firstfruits of all thine increase." We are acquainted with the concept of tithing of our income.  We are not as familiar with giving a tithe of the increase of our assets.  The Old Testament was written when commerce was more agrarian.  It was easy each season to take a portion of the increase of their herd or crops and Honor God with the first fruit of that increase.  In today's economy it is more difficult to give of the increase of our capital because it is lock up in our homes, stock portfolios, life insurance policies, pensions and IRA plans.  These assets may only be available for tithing when we die.  The best way to make sure we honor God of all our increase is to include a bequest to the Lord's work at our death.  To do this we need a written estate plan that will Honor God as He has prospered our capital.  A Godly Stewards Estate Plan.

There are two ways to leave a bequest (gift).  One is to state a specific dollar amount; for example, I gift $10,000 to my favorite charity(s).  The other is to state a certain percentage of your total estate; I gift 10% of my estate value at the time of my death to my favorite charity(s).  The percentage method is more Biblical.  The Bible talks much about proportionate giving.  The tithe is 10% of your income.  So as your income increases so does the amount of your gift, as your income decreases your gift is reduced.  In giving a percentage of your estate as God prospers you your gift increases.

Those who use the dollar amount usually base the gift on a percentage of their total estate.  For example lets say their estate is worth $100,000 at the time they write their will and they want to give a gift of at least 10% then they would state in their will or trust to make a gift of $10,000.  The problem occurs when their estate increases to a million dollars and their gift drops to only 1% of their total estate.  Would this honor God who has given them such a nice estate?

Once you have determined the percentage amount to be gifted then you need to determine which charity or charities that you want your gift to the Lord’s work to pass through.  It is important to get the correct legal name and address so there is no confusion to which organization is to receive the proceeds.  If you have multiple charities then make sure that you indicate the percentage to each organization.  If the organization has various ministries within the organization it is also important to specify where or how your gift is to be used.  For example “We would like our gift to be use for world missions.”

Some other items to consider.  People today are highly mobile and with their moves they change churches many times during the course of their lives.  You may want to instead of naming your current church as a beneficiary state “the church I am attending at the time of my death.” Another consideration would be a statement that if a charity were not operating at the time of my death then the proceeds would be div ided proportionately between the remaining charities.