Charitable Lead Trust: The Details
You greatly reduce or avoid possible gift and estate tax on trust assets passing to family... if some trust income goes to charity for a few years.
Is this gift right for you?
A charitable lead trust is for you if…
- You hold appreciating assets that you want to pass on to the next generation.
- You want to reduce your gift and estate taxes.
- Your planning objective is to preserve the value of your estate, not increase your income or reduce your income tax.
- You are looking for techniques that will give your family more of your estate over a longer period of time.
- You want your gift to provide a stream of income to Yale.
The charitable lead trust pays income to Yale now, while reducing your tax costs for transferring assets to your heirs. The lead trust holds appreciating assets for your lifetime or for a term of years, and pays annual income to us. Yale benefits from the assured income stream from the lead trust, while your family enjoys several tax advantages:
- The gift assets placed in the lead trust are frozen in value for transfer-tax purposes as of the date the trust is formed. When the trust terminates and the assets pass to your family, all intervening appreciation will escape gift and estate tax.
- Our income interest further reduces the taxable value of the trust assets when they pass to your family. This feature makes the lead trust especially useful if you are holding assets likely to appreciate significantly before they are transferred to the next generation.