The Lander Legacy Society

A charitable bequest is a simple and powerful way to support the foundation and the Lander community. Tax laws favor bequests, providing a charitable deduction for gifts made to the Lander Community Foundation through a will. Bequests can be unrestricted or restricted to specific programs or purposes.

An unrestricted bequest is one that is intended for the best use by the Lander Community Foundation as determined by the Board of Trustees.

As with any contribution, donors can restrict a bequest for a specific purpose. If you restrict a bequest, please give the Foundation some flexibility to meet unforeseen circumstances.

Naming the Lander Community Foundation as a beneficiary of your retirement plan is a tax-smart way to donate. Because retirement plan contributions are often made with before-tax dollars, those assets are taxable when withdrawn. If passed to heirs through an estate, retirement assets are often subject to both estate and income taxes, thus reducing their value to heirs. Conversely, these same assets can fund a generous charitable gift to LCF at a relatively low cost to your estate.

Typically, these assets pass to nonprofits outside of probate and are tax-free.

Life insurance is a straightforward way to support the Lander community, particularly if you have a policy that you and your family no longer need. The simplest method is to designate the Lander Community Foundation as the owner of that policy. This option generates an immediate income tax deduction. Alternatively, you can name the foundation as a beneficiary. Because that designation is revocable, you do not receive immediate tax deductions; however, your estate executor will be allowed to take an estate tax deduction for the full amount.

Through a life income gift, you can make a generous donation to the Lander community and continue to earn income from an asset. These gifts can also help you reduce income, capital gains, and estate taxes.

One type of life income gift is a charitable remainder trust, in which you transfer assets to a trust for the foundation’s eventual benefit, and then you or a designated beneficiary receives income from the trust for life or a term of years.

If you are interested in donating stock please contact, or have the person handling the sale on your end, contact First Interstate Bank representative Lori Mohler at lori.mohler@fib.com or (307) 857-6308. You will need to know: (1) the stock name, (2) the name of the donor (your name), and (3) the number of shares being transferred.