Beneficiary Designation
A beneficiary designation is a simple way to make a gift to support DoveLewis Emergency Animal Hospital Inc. by designating us as a beneficiary of your retirement account, life insurance policy, donor advised fund, investment or bank account, or other financial asset.
The Benefits of Giving Through Beneficiary Designations
Making a charitable gift through a beneficiary designation is a simple, powerful way to support DoveLewis without affecting your current financial situation. By naming DoveLewis as a beneficiary of your retirement account, life insurance policy, donor advised fund, investment or bank account, or other financial asset, you can create a lasting impact while potentially reducing taxes on your estate.
Benefits
- Support DoveLewis and other causes you care about
- Continue using your account/s as long as you need to
- Simplify your planning and avoid expensive legal fees
- Reduce the burden of taxes on your family
- Receive an estate tax charitable deduction
Beneficiary designation video
Presented to you by DoveLewis
How a beneficiary designation works
- Contact the person who helps you with your donor advised fund, account or insurance policy, such as your investment advisor, banker, wealth manager, or insurance agent.
- Ask them to send you a new beneficiary designation form.
- Complete the form, sign it and e-mail/mail it back to your investment advisor, banker, wealth manager, or insurance agent.
- When you pass away, your account or insurance policy will be paid or transferred to DoveLewis consistent with the beneficiary designation.
Important considerations for your future
If you are interested in naming DoveLewis as a beneficiary but are also concerned about your future needs, keep in mind that beneficiary designations are among the most flexible of all charitable gifts. Even after you complete the beneficiary designation form, you can take distributions, make grants, or withdrawals and continue to freely use your accounts. You can also change your mind at any time in the future for any reason, including if you have a loved one who needs your financial help.
- Flexibility—Most beneficiary designation forms are very flexible. You can name DoveLewis as a "full" or "partial" beneficiary. You can also name DoveLewis as a "primary" or "contingent" beneficiary.
- Family Considerations—Beneficiary designations allow you to provide for family and support DoveLewis. With a designation form you could, for example, name your spouse as the "primary" beneficiary and each of your children and DoveLewis as "partial contingent" beneficiaries. With this arrangement, if your spouse survives you, he or she would receive the account. If not, the account or policy would be paid out to your children and DoveLewis in whatever shares (or percentages) that you chose on the designation form.
- Terminology—Beneficiary designations are simple and straightforward. Common terminology includes "beneficiary designation" but also includes "payable on death" or "transfer on death." The term "beneficiary designation" is most commonly used when naming beneficiaries of retirement plans, donor advised funds, or life insurance policies. The term payable on death (or POD) typically involves the designation of a beneficiary of a checking account, savings account or certificates of deposit, and transfer on death (or TOD) often involves the designation of a beneficiary for stocks, bonds or mutual funds.
- Beneficiary Designations and Real Estate—Some states even allow "beneficiary designation deeds" or "transfer on death deeds", which would allow you to name DoveLewis as the survivor beneficiary of your home, farm or other real estate. As with other beneficiary designations, these gifts are revocable by filing a revocation or new beneficiary designation deed.
Contact Us
If you have any questions about naming DoveLewis as a beneficiary, please contact us. We would be happy to assist you.
If you have already designated us as a beneficiary of an asset or as part of your estate plan, please let us know. We would like to recognize you and your family for your gift.
