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Make a Future Gift of Retirement Assets

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Thank you for considering a IRA gift to us. A sample letter is available to send to your DAF provider. You may save and print the PDF of your letter. If you have email contact information for your DAF provider, you may send a PDF copy of your DAF letter or you may copy and paste the text into an email. You will need to enter the amount of your recommended grant and your DAF account number on the letter before mailing. If you would like to notify us of your generous gift, please complete the Notify us of your DAF Gift section.

Beneficiary Designation Gifts

Donating part or all of your unused retirement assets, such as your IRA, 401(k), 403(b), pension or other tax-deferred plan, is an excellent way to make a gift to University of Oklahoma Foundation.

If you are like most people, you probably will not use all of your retirement assets during your lifetime. You can make a gift of your unused retirement assets to help further our mission.

Flowchart: Donor executes designation form with account custodian to designate OU as beneficiary of a retirement, investment or bank account.

Benefits of gifts of retirement assets

  • Simplify your planning
  • Support the causes that you care about
  • Continue to use your account as long as you need to
  • Heirs can instead receive tax-advantaged assets from the estate
  • Receive potential estate tax savings from an estate tax deduction

How a beneficiary designation gift works

  1. To make your gift, contact the person who helps you with your retirement account or insurance policy.
  2. Ask them to send you a new beneficiary designation form.
  3. Complete the form, naming the University of Oklahoma Foundation, sign it and mail it back to your financial institution.
  4. Provide a copy of the form to the OU Foundation and contact us to discuss the way in which you would like your gift to benefit OU.
  5. When you pass away, your retirement account or insurance policy will be paid or transferred to the OU Foundation, consistent with the beneficiary designation.

How to make a gift of retirement assets

To leave your retirement assets to University of Oklahoma Foundation, you will need to complete a beneficiary designation form provided by your retirement plan custodian. If you designate University of Oklahoma Foundation as beneficiary, we will benefit from the full value of your gift because your retirement assets will not be taxed at your death. Your estate will benefit from an estate tax charitable deduction for the gift.

Future gifts from your retirement assets

Did you know that 40%-60% of your retirement assets may be taxed if you leave them to your heirs at your death? Another option is to leave your heirs assets that receive a step up in basis, such as real estate and stock, and give the retirement assets to University of Oklahoma Foundation. As a charity, we are not taxed upon receiving an IRA or other retirement plan assets. You can use the "Make a Future Gift of Retirement Assets" tool to contact your retirement plan custodian and designate a future gift to University of Oklahoma Foundation.

Important considerations for your future

If you are interested in making a gift but are also concerned about your future needs, keep in mind that beneficiary designation gifts are among the most flexible of all charitable gifts. Even after you complete the beneficiary designation form, you can take distributions or withdrawals from your retirement account. 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.

Contact us

If you have any questions about leaving a beneficiary designation gift to us, please contact us. We would be happy to assist you.

If you have already designated us as a beneficiary, please let us know. We would like to recognize you and your family for your gift.

Additional Information

Flexibility — Most beneficiary designation forms are very flexible. You can name the OU Foundation as a "full" or "partial" beneficiary of your retirement account or life insurance policy. You can also name the OU Foundation as a "primary" or "contingent" beneficiary.

Family Considerations — Beneficiary designation gifts allow you to provide for family and support the causes that matter most to you. With a designation form you could, for example, name your spouse as the "primary" beneficiary and each of your children and the OU Foundation 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 the OU Foundation in whatever shares (or percentages) that you chose on the designation form.

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