Estate Giving

There are many ways a donor can support High Watch. Donors are encouraged to seek professional advice in choosing a giving opportunity. This includes advice on the need to obtain an appraisal of certain gifts, for the donor’s tax return. High Watch personnel are not in a position to offer legal, accounting, tax approval, or other advice to prospective donors.

Please contact Alice Bemand, Director of Development at High Watch Recovery Center, 860-927-3772 x163 to discuss any of the giving opportunities below.

Bequests

One of the easiest ways to make a meaningful gift to High Watch is through your will. A specific testamentary bequest designates what and how much you leave to a particular cause or organization under your estate plan. Perhaps the most straightforward technique for making a charitable donation is an outright or direct gift, which can be made during the donor’s lifetime or upon death.

 
 

Real Estate Gifts

Donors may choose to make a lifetime gift or testamentary bequest of real property to High Watch. Almost any type of real estate may be contributed, including undeveloped land and commercial buildings. High Watch must evaluate gifts of real estate on a case-by-case basis before acceptance. We must consider insurance requirements, environmental issues, maintenance, property tax liability, liens on the property, and other potential risk factors. In some cases, a donor may choose to make a gift of real property with a retained life estate, allowing the donor to live in and use the property during his or her lifetime. The tax benefits available to the donor will vary depending on the value of the retained interest. Such gifts are evaluated by High Watch in the same manner as other gifts of real property.

Charitable Gift Annuities

Of all the gifts that pay you an income during your life, the charitable gift annuity may be the simplest. The annuity is a contract between yourself and High Watch which specifies that in return for your gift of cash or marketable securities, High Watch will pay you or another beneficiary a fixed and dependable annual payments for life.

 
 

Charitable Remainder Trusts

Charitable remainder trusts allow a donor to designate High Watch as the remainder beneficiary to a trust that will provide an annual financial return to either the donor or a named beneficiary. The non-charitable beneficiary may receive, for life or for a fixed period of years, a variable return, based on a fixed percentage of the trust assets as determined once each year (a charitable remainder unitrust) or a defined annuity amount fixed at the inception of the trust (a charitable remainder annuity). High Watch does not serve as a trustee to any charitable remainder trust. Donors, in consultation with their professional advisors, should appoint an appropriate trustee to administer any charitable remainder trust.

High Watch prefers to review any charitable remainder trust for which it is designated as a remainder beneficiary.

Charitable Lead Trusts

A charitable lead trust is in some ways the reverse of a charitable remainder trust. In a charitable lead trust, the donor creates an irrevocable trust that provides for a charitable organization to receive cash payments from the trust for a specified period of time or the lifetime of one or more individuals. At the end of the trust term, the remaining trust assets are distributed to a non-charitable beneficiary designated by the donor.

 

High Watch is a non-profit organization under section 501(c) (3) of the Internal Revenue Code.