How To Weave Charitable Gifts Into Your Estate Plan This Holiday Season

Big-hearted plans beat vague intentions. We dig into clear, workable ways to support the causes you care about—without neglecting the people you love. From simple will language to more advanced tools, this conversation breaks down how to structure charitable gifts so they’re easy to carry out, tax smart, and aligned with your values.

We start with the building blocks: specific gifts versus percentage bequests, and how beneficiary designations on life insurance, retirement accounts, and bank accounts can direct support straight to a nonprofit while avoiding probate. Then we go deeper on strategy. Charitable lead trusts send income to a charity for a set term before the remainder goes to your family; charitable remainder trusts do the reverse, paying you or loved ones first and gifting the remainder to your chosen organization later. Both can provide meaningful tax advantages when designed with care.

Throughout the conversation, we connect planning to purpose. If your heart is with animal rescue, education, your church, or a local community group, a few precise decisions can produce outsized impact. We share practical examples—like gifting 20 percent of an estate to a humane society—and why end-of-year is a natural time to review documents with your estate attorney and tax advisor. And while the legal tools matter, small daily acts of generosity build the same legacy in real time, reinforcing the story your plan will one day tell.

Ready to align generosity with a plan you trust? Listen now, subscribe for more practical elder law insights, share this episode with someone who’s planning their legacy, and leave a review to tell us which cause you’re supporting this season.

Episode Transcript

SPEAKER_00 (00:09):
Hi there.
I'm Jane Deerwester withMcIntyre Elder Law.
Thank you for joining us foranother Elder Law report.
I'm here with my colleague,Jordan McIntyre.
Hi, Jordan.

SPEAKER_01 (00:20):
Hey, Jane.
How are you?

SPEAKER_00 (00:22):
Good.
We are here today.
It's November.
We're here to talk aboutcharitable giving.
This is the month when a lot ofus pause to think about what
we're grateful for, to focus ongratitude, to maybe give a
little bit to those who don'thave as much.
And it's a time when we can stopand make plans for philanthropic

(00:45):
charitable giving.
Also in the fourth quarter, thisis a very common time when
you're planning charitablegiving for the coming year for
2026.
You may want to sit down withyour estate planning attorney or
your tax advisors and talk aboutthe benefits of charitable
giving.
You can actually have some taxbenefits for charitable giving,

(01:08):
as well as helping out a charitythat's near and dear to your
heart and near and dear to yourfamily.
This is something that we dealwith often.
Part of your goals arephilanthropic and giving to

(01:34):
charity.
We want to make sure youunderstand the different ways
that you can do that, creatingtrust or naming a charity as a
beneficiary under your will orunder your life insurance.
So there are a lot of differentways to accomplish that.
And Jordan's going to talk aboutsome trust planning as it
involves a charitable giving.

SPEAKER_01 (01:56):
Yes.
And I will just uh back up Janeand say that at McIntyre
Overlaw, we always talk aboutprotecting your assets and your
legacy.
And Thanksgiving is all aboutthe season of giving.
And I will say that the legacydoesn't just extend to your
biological children, but it alsoextends to the community and
those who are needy.

(02:17):
And if you have the ability andhave the assets to leave
something behind to othersoutside of your biological
children, you can really leave alasting legacy in the community.
And specifically at McIntyreElder Law, we can guide you on
how to do that.
It's very simple within a trustor a will to leave a certain

(02:38):
amount with a specific bequest,right?
Let's say you want to leave$10,000,$20,000,$30,000 to your
church or some charity in thecommunity.
We can set up specific bequestin the will or a trust, or you
can leave behind a certainpercentage of your estate.
Let's say you want 20% of yourassets going to the um, I don't

(03:00):
know, Jane, what's a what's adog society and uh the local
animal society.

SPEAKER_00 (03:07):
Yeah, the Blue Ridge Humane Society is a good one.

SPEAKER_01 (03:10):
Yeah.
You want 20% of your estategoing to Blue Ridge Humane
Society.
We can very easily do thatwithin the residuary
distributions and the wills andthe trusts.
Additionally, I'm going to talkabout two specific types of
trusts that we can set up thatare irrevocable trusts.
And one is known as thecharitable lead trust, the other
is known as the charitableremainder trust.

(03:32):
A charitable lead trust is anirrevocable trust where that
makes regular payments to acharity for a set period.
Um, so so the charity willreceive income for a set period
of time, and then after thatperiod is over, the remaining
assets go to potentially yourfamily or non-charitable
beneficiaries.
There are tax benefits to doingthis.

(03:54):
The charitable remain trust isthe opposite.
It provides income to you duringyour life or maybe your family
during your life.
And then when you pass, thecharity receives the remainder.
Um, other than that, you couldpotentially have beneficiaries
that are trust on your bankaccounts, your retirement
accounts, um, and always meetwith us or a financial advisor

(04:16):
to talk about the tax benefitsof doing this.
And I'll let Jane continue onand close this out.

SPEAKER_00 (04:22):
Yeah, thank you so much, Jordan.
I think again, this is a time ofyear that we all pause and think
about what we're grateful for.
And again, if you are blessedenough to have the ability for
charitable giving, not only canyou incorporate that into your
estate plan, but I encourageeveryone to incorporate it into
your daily life.

(04:43):
Pay it forward, pay for theperson's coffee behind you a
Starbucks.
You know, these kind of littlerandom acts of kindness uh in
these times can go a long way.
And if you're really passionateabout animal rescue or education
or whatever it is, yourcharitable giving and your

(05:04):
ultimate bequest and your willor from your trust, it can make
a huge difference for peoplemoving forward and also give you
some tax savings and peace ofmind and kind of all the warm
fuzzies that you know you'redoing something to help others.
So I hope all of us can embracethis idea of giving at this time

(05:26):
of year.
Uh, very grateful for our staffhere at McIntyre Elder Law and
our attorneys.
Um, our goal is to help peopleaccomplish their ultimate goals
with their estate plan, andcharitable giving is definitely
a great part of that, a greatway to go.
So thank you, Jordan, forjoining me today.
And thanks to all of you who arelistening.

(05:48):
If you have any questions aboutcharitable giving or state
planning in general, please letus know.
We have offices inHendersonville, Shelby, and
Charlotte.
And we look forward to meetingwith you and discussing your
goals.
Thanks, Jordan.

SPEAKER_01 (06:01):
Thank you.