How to make a gift from retirement assets

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To make a legacy gift from retirement assets, list the College Guild Legacy Fund, c/o College Guild (Tax ID# 01-0545944) as a beneficiary of your account. You can often make this change by logging in to your account online or requesting a “Change of Beneficiary” form from your retirement account administrator.

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Annual gifts 

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Even if you don’t itemize, you can exclude from your gross income a Qualified Charitable Distribution made from your IRA. To qualify, the gift must be made directly from your IRA, not passing through your personal checking accounts, and must clear your IRA account by December 31 to be counted toward the current year’s taxes.

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Your IRA custodian may have its own form, email address, or online process to request the transfer. Please ask your custodian to include your name on their check to College Guild. 

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If you are 72 or older in the current year , your charitable donation will count towards your Required Minimum Distribution (RMD) for the year. 

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You can't give your required minimum distribution from a 401(k) to charity without triggering a tax, but after taking the RMD for the current year you can roll some or all of your 401(k) funds over to an IRA.  In future years you can use RMDs from from that IRA for charitable donations, taking advantage of the tax benefits.