Life Insurance

In considering a charitable gift, life insurance is a common resource that is often overlooked - and a convenient gift. You may have an individual policy that has outlived its original purpose or have group life insurance as a benefit through your employer. Using an existing policy or purchasing a new one is an easy way to make a significant gift to the Dominican Sisters of Peace.

• Add the Dominican Sisters of Peace as a beneficiary. Regardless of the reason why you have life insurance or whom you have chosen to receive the proceeds, you can always add the Dominican Sisters as an alternate beneficiary to a new or existing policy. If the individual named as the beneficiary of the policy does not survive you, the Dominican Sisters automatically become the recipient of the insurance proceeds.
• Include the Dominican Sisters of Peace as one of the primary beneficiaries if your current beneficiary will not need the entire amount of the policy.

  HOW: To add the Dominican Sisters of Peace as a beneficiary to an existing policy, simply contact your insurance agent and ask for a “change of beneficiary” form. Then complete the form to include the “Dominican Sisters of Peace” as a beneficiary and return it to your insurance company. While no income tax benefits are available for naming the Dominican Sisters of Peace as a beneficiary, any funds that are finally paid to the Dominican Sisters will be deductible as a charitable gift for federal estate-tax purposes. You could designate that your existing beneficiary will receive 60 percent of the insurance proceeds and name the Dominican Sisters of Peace as the beneficiary of the remaining 40 percent.

• Give an existing policy.
  Perhaps you purchased an insurance policy for a specific purpose, but now find that the need for the policy no longer exists. In that event, you may want to consider giving the old policy to the Dominican Sisters of Peace.

  HOW: A gift can be accomplished by simply completing an “assignment of policy” form obtained from your insurance agent. Because you are transferring the ownership of the policy to the Dominican Sisters of Peace, you are entitled to a current charitable deduction for federal income-tax purposes. The amount you can deduct is the “interpolated terminal reserve” value of the policy which your insurance agent can calculate for you.

• Buy a new policy.
  You may be able to make a significant gift to the Dominican Sisters of Peace by purchasing a new life insurance policy with the Dominican Sisters as the beneficiary. If you name the Dominican Sisters of Peace as the owner of the policy as well as the beneficiary, the yearly premiums you pay are tax deductible.

  WHY: the premiums are deductible as a charitable contribution. For example, if you purchase a single-premium life insurance policy for $5,000 and name the Dominican Sisters as the owner and beneficiary, you would receive an immediate income-tax deduction of $5,000. The policy begins to earn interest on the cash value plus interest in addition to the face amount of the insurance. In this way, you can ultimately make a very substantial gift to the Dominican Sisters of Peace.