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Legacy Planning

Thoughtfully structured charitable gifts allow you to enhance your philanthropic contributions and secure UNC Health’s financial future, as well as your own. Legacy gifts play an important role in providing steady resources needed to make groundbreaking medical discoveries, provide the best care for our patients, and prepare the next generation of medical professionals to lead throughout North Carolina and beyond.

With your help, UNC Health and UNC School of Medicine will remain a leader in research, education and state-of-the-art care for all.

For more information on leaving a life-changing legacy, please contact us at:

Leslie H. Nelson-Bernier
Chief Philanthropy Officer, UNC Health
President, UNC Health Foundation
123 W. Franklin Street, Suite 510
Chapel Hill, NC 27516
919-966-5812
leslie_nelson@med.unc.edu

You can also download our legacy planning brochure as a PDF.

Life Income

Managing investments, preparing for retirement, providing for loved ones, charitable interests – there are ways to meet these seemingly conflicting goals. A gift to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Inc. Foundation for the benefit of UNC Health in return for income enables you to make a significant impact while finding the right solution for your circumstances. Gift options are:

  • Carolina Annuity – pays a fixed income for life, payments now or deferred
  • Carolina Charitable Unitrust – pays fixed percentage of trust assets revalued annually
  • Carolina Charitable Flip Unitrust – gift of real estate or illiquid assets for deferred income
  • Carolina Charitable Annuity Trust – pays fixed amount annually based on initial value of trust assets

Bequests

A will or a living trust is a statement about what matters most in your life. Including UNC Health Foundation in your estate plans allows you direct any amount to UNC Health Foundation free of estate tax. You can give cash or specific property, a fixed amount, a percentage of your estate or a remainder interest.

Beneficiary Designations

Beneficiary designations control many assets, and are an easy way to structure charitable gifts. You can create your legacy by naming UNC Health Foundation as a beneficiary of your retirement account, life insurance policy, brokerage, or bank accounts.

Qualified Retirement Plans (QRP) are typically one of the most heavily taxed assets you have in your estate, even if your estate is not large enough to trigger a federal estate tax. Since taxes are neither paid on the account’s assets when it is earned, nor as it grows, withdrawals from QRP’s are subject to income tax regardless of who receives the funds. By leaving these plans to loved ones, they could be forced into a higher income tax bracket. As a qualified charity, UNC Health Foundation does not pay income tax. Listing UNC Health Foundation as the beneficiary of a retirement plan preserves the full value of this important asset, thus providing greater support to areas at UNC Health.

Beneficiary designation forms also control other assets, such as life insurance policies, brokerage, and bank accounts. These types of gifts may allow you to make a greater impact at UNC Health than you originally thought. For assistance in how to begin this process, and to determine which asset is best for you to use, please contact our office.

Stock

Benefits of gifts of stocks are:

  • Avoid paying capital gains tax on the growth of the value of your securities
  • Receive a charitable income tax deduction
  • Possible increased income by using low dividend producing stock to fund a life income gift

*To notify us of your stock gift, please fill out this form.

IRA Rollover

If you are age 70 ½ or older, you may be interested in a way to lower the income and taxes from you IRA withdrawals. Benefits of an IRA Charitable Rollover are:

  • Avoid taxes on transfers of up to $100,000
  • Satisfy your required minimum distribution for the year
  • Reduce your taxable income, even if you do not itemize

*Visit here to learn more about how to initiate an IRA Rollover.

Real Estate

A gift of your appreciated property, such as your home, vacation property, vacant land, farmland or commercial property may also provide benefits to you, such as avoiding capital gains on the growth in the value of your property and receiving a charitable income tax deduction.

The Gerrard Society

Planned gifts have helped fulfill the vision of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill for more than 200 years. In 1797, Major Charles Gerrard made a generous bequest by leaving the University a large tract of land in his will. When the University sold the land several decades later, the money was used to build Gerrard Hall next to South Building on the University campus.

Donors and friends who have created their own legacy through documented planned gifts are recognized as members of The Gerrard Society. Countless scholarships, professorships, research funds and programmatic support have been funded with planned gifts created by those who came before us. Thanks to this support, the University, UNC Health and the UNC School of Medicine will continue to thrive as a leading public institution in the nation and benefit future generations of students, faculty and staff.

All Gerrard Society members receive a welcome packet and uniquely designed thank you gift, as well as special invitations to campus, regional and Society events.