For most of us, our planned gift is the most significant and transformational gift that we will ever make.

That is because our planned gift most often comes from our estate after our lifetime. It represents a lifetime of resources that we carefully gathered and tended for our own use – a house to live in, a retirement account to care for ourselves, and a few things we’ve gathered to enjoy. Through a lifetime of hard work; of difficult decisions; of sacrifices; often with risk; often with caution – we have shaped our accumulated resources; they say so much about us that they have our imprint upon them.

Still, one day each one of us will be finished with it all, and we give it all away. We place our carefully gathered resources into the hands of their next caretaker(s), and that may perhaps be the most important transfer we may ever make. It is of such urgent consequence, because any these

opportunities ring true:

1. The size: this gift emerges from the largest assets we will ever release… it is likely to have a significant impact for the one who tends it next. As such, we hope it supports them in reaching their own goals – and does not distract from them.
2. We still care: since these assets are a representation of our lifetime of work and decisions made – they therefore have our lifetime imprint. We are hopeful that those who care for them next will honor the faith and values that guided us in building this resource. As the next owner expends these resources, we hope that it is within some range of values similar to the spirit in which we built them.
3. We still matter: this is our pathway to carry on. With careful planning, even after our lifetime, we can potentially even expand our good deeds through re-deploying our accumulated resources into an energy source to care for the people and places we care about deeply. Through this, we continue on living out our love, our faith and ethos. Through planning we still matter greatly.

For these reasons, in one compact moment, a planned gift is truly the opportunity of a lifetime.

The capstone

If you have already written a planned gift into your estate plans, we thank you on behalf of current and future generations. We hope that the rich experience of your legacy is palpable here.