Legacy Giving

Making a gift to MALT in your will or living trust is easy to arrange and costs nothing to make now. Your gift is revocable and remains under your control during life. You can leave specific property, a dollar amount or a percentage of your estate to MALT.

Distributions from tax-deferred retirement plans, like IRAs, are taxable to owners during life ­— and to heirs when inherited. This means that inherited IRAs can become a tax liability for children and loved ones. When used to make a charitable gift to MALT, however, retirement plan assets are transferred tax-free. By naming MALT as a full or partial beneficiary of your retirement plan and leaving other, less tax-vulnerable assets to your heirs, you can reduce or eliminate taxes for your heirs while knowing 100% of your gift to MALT will be used to protect farmland forever.

Donating a life insurance policy you no longer need can be a powerful strategy to make a larger gift than you might otherwise afford, while receiving immediate tax benefits. Perhaps your grown children are financially independent and your other assets meet your retirement needs. Or maybe you have a policy your parents purchased for you years ago. If you assign and transfer ownership of a fully paid policy to MALT during life, you’ll receive a tax deduction for your gift. You can also make a gift of life insurance by designation. Simply request a beneficiary designation form from your life insurance company and name MALT as a full, partial or contingent beneficiary.

In addition to recommending immediate or recurring grants to MALT from your donor advised fund (DAF), you can name MALT as the full or partial beneficiary of your fund — ensuring future support for MALT’s mission to permanently protect working farms and ranches.

A charitable gift annuity provides you with fixed, annual payments for as long as you live, an immediate income tax deduction and the satisfaction of making a generous gift to MALT. Gift annuities can supplement retirement income with no surprises. And, if you fund your gift annuity with long-term appreciated securities, you won’t owe capital gains tax on any associated gain.

A charitable remainder trust allows you to bypass the capital gains tax on the sale of appreciated assets (like real estate and securities) and receive lifetime income, an immediate tax deduction — and the satisfaction of making a significant future gift to MALT.

A charitable lead trust allows you to give trust income to MALT for a term of years after which trust assets are passed to non-charitable beneficiaries, often family members. For donors who want to ultimately pass assets they expect to appreciate to loved ones, but would like to provide MALT with significant current support, charitable lead trusts can be an excellent option. You decide which assets to transfer to a lead trust and the term of years during which MALT will receive trust income as a charitable gift. Depending on the type of trust, you may benefit from tax deductions or estate or gift tax savings. When the term ends, trust assets pass to your spouse, children, grandchildren or other beneficiaries.

A gift of real estate eliminates the costs and responsibilities of ownership, can reduce taxes and provide generous financial support to MALT. If you have owned the property for more than a year, you’ll receive an income tax deduction equal to the property’s full fair market value. You won’t owe capital gains tax and your gift will reduce the size of your future taxable estate. MALT accepts gifts of agricultural land intended for conservation and properties intended for sale. In addition to outright gifts of real estate, MALT will consider accepting life estate agreements (which allow owners to gift their homes to MALT now while remaining at home for their lifetimes) and partial interest gifts of real estate.