Hospice offers annuities
BY NIGEL E. ALLEN Special to Gulf Breeze News news@gulfbreezenews.com

Many people have the investment goal of being able to insure a guaranteed stream of income and do so by purchasing Certificates of Deposits (CDs) or investing in immediate-fixed annuities from an insurance company. But if you're charitably inclined, an even better alternative might be a charitable-gift annuity from your favorite notfor profit organization. Covenant Hospice is one such organization that offers charitable gift annuities.

A charitable gift annuity is a way to make a gift to your favorite charity, and still receive a lifetime income for yourself or others. It is truly a gift that keeps on giving. It's a contract under which a charity, in return for a transfer of cash or other property, agrees to pay a fixed sum of money for a period measured by one or two lives.

The person who contributes an asset for the annuity is called the "donor," and the person who receives payments is called the "annuitant" or "beneficiary." In addition to providing lifetime income, a gift annuity has the added benefits of offering some significant tax benefits and allowing you to support your favorite charity at the same time.

So now you might now be wondering if you would be a typical candidate for considering a charitable gift annuity. Most gift annuity donors are retired, want to increase their cash flow, seek the security of guaranteed payments, and would like to save on their taxes. A charitable gift annuity might also be worth considering if your interest rates on your CDs and other fixed-income investments have declined, and you would like to increase your cash flow.

You also might want to consider an annuity if you own appreciated stock or mutual fund shares and have considered selling some of the shares and reinvesting the proceeds to generate more income, but you have hesitated because you don't want to pay tax on the capital gain. Other reasons to consider a annuity is to lock in fixed payments which are unaffected by interest rates and stock prices, if you want to assure continuation of payments to a surviving spouse without the delay of probate proceedings, and if you would like to provide financial assistance to an elderly parent, a sibling, or other person in a tax-advantaged manner.

If you would like to learn more information about charitable gift annuities or have any questions about this article, please feel free to contact your financial advisor or me directly at nigel.allen@covenanthospice.or g or by calling 850 202-0299.