Legacies A publication of the United Methodist Foundation of Louisiana
Inside This Issue
3rd Quarter 2022
How Can I Leave a Legacy?
Planned Giving Overview
The Easiest Planned Gift Page 2
Planning your legacy is fun, rewarding and fulfilling. No one ever regrets having one!
Ways to Pay for Long-Term Care Page 3
In Memoriam Page 4
“Where Faith and Money Come Together”
Your legacy can reward and affirm your lifelong commitment and investment in your family, your friends and your United Methodist church. A gift to benefit your church will help extend the congregation’s ministry for generations to come and is the best way to take care of the place in which you worship and have built your family’s spiritual foundation. There are many ways to make a planned gift to help your church. Here are a few: Bequest A bequest is a gift left in a will, and it allows a donor to maintain control of their assets during life, but make a gift to their church at death. Charitable Gift Annuity Receive fixed income for life, avoid capital gains tax on the sale of your appreciated property, and receive a charitable income tax deduction now.
Charitable Remainder Trust Use appreciated property without paying capital gains tax, enjoy regular income for life or a term of years, and receive a charitable deduction now. Life Estate Gift Remain in your home for life and receive a charitable income tax deduction now. Through any type of planned gift, you can create a legacy for the future of your family, your United Methodist church or favorite ministry. For more information on additional types of gifts, contact us or go to our website at www.umfgiving.org.
INVEST IN WHAT YOU
value
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CARE FOR WHAT YOU
love
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“Where Faith and Money Come Together”
2022 Board of Trustees
t s e i s a The E Planned Gift:
Legacies
A Beneficiary Designation
Rev. Michi Head Chairman Dr. John R. Black L. Nettles Brown Rev. Jo Ann Cooper Dr. Debra Davis Omer Davis Rev. Doug deGraffenried Mike DeHart Bobby Fahey Irwin Felps Dean Harvey Drew Kennedy Sandra Kuykendall Eunice Val Lavigne Richard Lewis Rev. Ashley McGuire Rev. Brian Mercer Troy Searles Rev. Drew Sutton Dianne Wilkinson Chris Spencer President
Contact Us: 8337 Jefferson Hwy. Baton Rouge, LA 70809 Phone: (225) 346-1535 Email: information@umf.org Web Addresses: www.umf.org www.umfgiving.org Legacies Editor: Kelly Johannessen kellyj@umf.org
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Usually, when people think of estate planning, they think of complicated documents and multiple trips to an attorney. But the simplicity of a beneficiary designation may surprise you. Your attorney, banker or insurance agent can give you a beneficiary designation form that you would complete for your bank accounts or insurance policy. Beneficiary designations can be used for any account, whether checking, savings, investment and/ or retirement. By completing the form, you can choose who receives the assets from each account when
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you pass away, or an insurance policy payout. It only takes a few moments to complete. Work with your attorney to make sure a beneficiary designation fits in your plan. You can choose a family member or your church or favorite ministry as the beneficiary of your account(s). Beneficiary designations are easy to do, you can change them at any time, and they keep your gift private until you want the beneficiary to know. They also allow you to maintain control of the account or policy during life, but make a substantial gift to your church at your death.
Simplicity of a Beneficiary Designation allows you to:
• Change your beneficiaries when you want • Change your mind as often as you want • Relax knowing your accounts pass automatically at your death
3rd Quarter 2022
Savvy Living Ways to Pay for Long-Term Care Dear Savvy Living, What types of financial resources are available to help seniors pay for long-term care? My 86-year-old parent will need an assisted living facility or nursing home care in the near future, but has savings that are minimal and does not hold a longterm care insurance policy. The cost of assisted living and nursing home care in the U.S. is very expensive. According to the Genworth cost of care survey tool, the national median cost for an assisted living facility is over $4,600 per month, while nursing home care runs more than $8,100 per month for a semi-private room. Prices will vary based on private or semi-private rooms. You can search for the costs of assisted living and nursing home care in your area on your favorite web browser.
Medicaid is the joint federal and state program that covers health care for individuals with limited finances. This program does cover nursing home and in-home care. To be eligible for coverage, the individual must have very lowincome and not more than $2,000 in countable assets, including investments. (Note that most people who enter a nursing home do not qualify for Medicaid at first but pay for care out-of-pocket until they deplete their savings enough to qualify.)
Most people pay for long-term care (LTC), which encompasses assisted living, nursing home and in-home care, with personal funds, government programs or insurance. If someone is lacking in savings and has no LTC insurance to cover costs, here are the best options to look for funding.
There are also many states that now have Medicaid waiver programs that can help pay for assisted living. Call your state Medicaid office or visit the Medicaid website at MedicaidPlanningAssistance.org.
Medicare/Medicaid: Medicare is the government run health insurance program for individuals ages 65+ and is available for individuals with disabilities. Medicare does not cover longterm care. It provides limited short-term coverage, up to 100 days for skilled nursing or rehabilitation services, but only after a three-day hospital stay.
Veterans Benefits: If your parent is a U.S. veteran, or a spouse or surviving spouse of a veteran, there is a benefit called Aid and Attendance that can help pay for long-term care. To be eligible, an individual must need assistance with daily living activities like bathing, dressing or going to the bathroom. Annual income must be under $15,816 as a surviving spouse, or $24,610 for a single veteran, after medical and long-term care expenses.
Assets must also be less than $138,489, excluding a home and one car. To learn more, see VA.gov/ geriatrics, or contact your regional VA office, or your local veterans service organization by calling (800) 827-1000 for contact information. Life insurance: If your parent has a life insurance policy, find out if it offers an accelerated death benefit because that would allow a taxfree advance to help pay for care. In the alternate, an individual may consider selling the policy to a life settlement company. These are companies that buy life insurance policies for cash, continue to pay the premiums and collect the death benefit. Most sellers generally get four to eight times more than the policy cash surrender value. If your parent owns a policy with a face value of $100,000 or more and is interested in this option, get quotes from several brokers or life settlement providers. To locate some, use the Life Insurance Settlement Association member directory at LISA.org. “Savvy Living” is written by Jim Miller, a regular contributor to the NBC Today Show and author of The Savvy Living book.
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In Memoriam: Dr. Kenneth R. Reed Dr. Reed and his late wife, Bobbie, also established a Charitable Gift Annuity for the benefit of the Foundation, which will now become a permanent endowment benefiting the Foundation’s grants program, forever.
Friends and staff of the United Methodist Foundation of Louisiana lost a great friend and mentor on August 30, 2022, when Dr. Kenneth R. “Ken” Reed, who served as Foundation president from 1990-1998, passed away from complications due to pneumonia. He was 90 years old. Dr. Reed served as president of the Foundation after serving for nearly 50 years as a United Methodist pastor and district superintendent. He served parttime after his retirement at the Foundation, advising on capital campaigns and cultivating planned gifts. The Foundation became one of the largest United Methodist foundations in the country during Dr. Reed’s tenure, and its assets under management grew from practically zero to more than $80 million.
Dr. Kenneth R. Reed 1932- 2022
He was instrumental in cultivating the first 500+ church accounts at the Foundation, as well as securing the most significant gift the Foundation has ever received, the Stafford Trust. This gift helped create the Foundation’s grants program that is still in operation today.
Dr. Reed had a deep-seated love for the connections within the United Methodist Church. Always an early bird, he would arrive at the Foundation office daily at 7:00 a.m. to make phone calls all over the state, checking in with fellow pastors and church leaders. His most endearing features were his sense of humor and love for his family.
The Foundation staff sends its sincere condolences to Dr. Reed’s family: his daughter, Kathy Martin and her husband, Kirk; his grandchildren, Peyton, Ashleigh and Austin; his brother, Rev. Eldon Reed; and his sister, Wanda Wilson. Dr. Reed was a loyal advocate of the Foundation, and he will be greatly missed. Thank you, Ken, for all your dedication to the Foundation and the generous legacy you leave behind.