LEGACY GIVING

 USAGA Legacy Society

We invite you to become a member of the USAGA Legacy Society. The Society exists to acknowledge those loyal members who have had the foresight and dedication to include USAGA in their estate plans.

​By honoring USAGA Legacy Society members, we hope other members will be inspired to follow suit. Enrolling in this honorary society is simply a matter of advising USAGA that you have included it in your will, no matter the size of your bequest. Please reach out to Bill Edelstein at bedelstein@usaga.org for further details.

Introduction

​Since 2014, United States Adaptive Golf Alliance (USAGA) has been serving the special needs community through inclusion in the game of golf. As you are aware, this has included access, instruction, and competition at all levels providing a competitive pathway. The impact has been enormous and transformative for the over 40,000 individuals within our consortium of 39 member organizations across the United States. 26% of the community we serve are wounded veterans.
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We hope that you will consider including USAGA in your will, life insurance, or retirement fund assets as your personal legacy to continue to nurture and enhance in perpetuity the immeasurable benefits of providing golf accessibility for all and empowering the special needs community through adaptive golf.

The lasting impact of bequests – both large and small – can help shape the character of USAGA and our programs for years to come.

Bequests

Bequests are the most popular type of planned gift. Whether you wish to provide general operating income for USAGA to use wherever it is most needed or to support an event or program, your bequest expresses your lasting commitment to us. A bequest to USAGA may also help you meet your financial and estate-planning goals since an estate-tax charitable deduction for the entire amount of the gift is generally allowed.

Retirement Plan Assets

Retirement Plan Assets in qualified (tax-deferred) retirement plans may represent a large portion of your total assets and therefore may be an important factor in planning testamentary charitable gifts. Retirement assets generally considered suitable for charitable gifts include such plans as IRAs, Keoghs, SEPs, 401(k)s, 403(b)s, and ESOPs. Left to family members or friends, these assets are subject to income tax and may also be subject to estate tax and generation-skipping transfer tax. Because of this potential double layer of tax, retirement plan assets may be particularly attractive as an asset to leave to USAGA. The portion of the plan payable to USAGA will generally escape estate taxes, and USAGA, as a tax-exempt institution, will not be required to pay income tax on the distributions.

Sample Bequest Language*

If you are considering making a bequest of a percentage of your estate to USAGA, we recommend the following language: I hereby give, devise and bequeath ____ percent (___%) of my total estate, determined as of the date of my death, to the United States Adaptive Golf Alliance (USAGA), a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization located at 900 Oakmont Lane, Suite 111, Westmont, Illinois 60559.

Life Insurance Policies

Naming USAGA as the beneficiary of an existing life insurance policy that is no longer needed to provide for dependents offers a simple way to support our work. Since you are the policy owner, the value of the policy will be included in your estate, but an offsetting estate-tax charitable deduction will generally be allowed. You may also be able to assign an existing whole life insurance policy to USAGA, irrevocably making us the owner and beneficiary, and claim an income-tax charitable deduction for your gift.

Tangible Personal Property

Personal property may also be donated to USAGA during your lifetime or by bequest. USAGA must give special consideration to such gifts before it can accept them, and we ask you to contact us if you are considering donating tangible personal property. Donors of tangible personal property held long term and accepted by USAGA may be entitled to claim an immediate income-tax charitable deduction and avoid capital gains taxes.

Gift In Tribute

Consider an outright donation now to honor and pay tribute to a family member either living or deceased. Tribute gifts can be made in one gift or stretched over 2 - 3 years. Naming opportunities to acknowledge your gift are also available

** The counsel of a trained estate planner and attorney should be sought for any drafting or revisions to a will, trust, or other planned gift. The above suggestions are intended as EXAMPLES ONLY and are not intended as the provision of legal advice.

For more information or questions, contact Ashley Pierce at apierce@usaga.org.