Giving by individuals totaled an estimated $484.85 billion in 2021. Total charitable giving in 2021 grew 4.0% over the revised total of $466.23 billion contributed in 2020. However, while giving increased in current dollars, it remained flat (-0.7%) after adjusting for inflation.¹

¹ Giving USA: Total U.S. charitable giving remained strong in 2021, reaching $484.85 billion, a publication of Giving USA Foundation, 2022, researched and written by the Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy. Available online at https://philanthropy.iupui.edu/.

Give and You Shall Receive

Why We Give

Everyone has their own motives for making charitable gifts. It could be generosity, religious belief, gratitude, or to benefit your alma mater. Regardless of the cause, the true meaning of your gift is to make the lives of others better. Benefiting your favorite cause can offer more than just self-fulfillment and aid to others; by carefully crafting your charitable giving plan to include life insurance, you can protect those who depend on you and achieve your philanthropic goal.

Using Life Insurance Together With Your Charitable Gift

By making a charitable donation through a life insurance policy, you can create a lasting legacy. The premium payments you make on a life insurance policy owned by your favorite charity could result in your charitable gift becoming more valuable than an annual cash contribution of that same amount. By using a life insurance product with a cash value component, your favorite charity has access to the cash value during your life and receives a death benefit — creating a legacy — at your death.

* The information provided is not written or intended as specific tax or legal advice. MassMutual, its subsidiaries, employees, and representatives are not authorized to give tax or legal advice. Individuals are encouraged to seek advice from their own tax or legal counsel. Individuals involved in the estate planning process should work with an estate planning team, including their own personal legal or tax counsel.

NOT A BANK OR CREDIT UNION DEPOSIT OR OBLIGATION • NOT FDIC OR NCUA INSURED • NOT INSURED BY ANY FEDERAL GOVERNMENT AGENCY • NOT GUARANTEED BY ANY BANK OR CREDIT UNION

Building a charitable plan that includes life insurance could provide some of the following benefits:

A substantial contribution can be made to charity at relatively low cost;
Your gift may increase in value because of the use of permanent life insurance cash value, coupled with increasing death benefits;
Assets intended for your family are retained, since the charity receives a legacy through life insurance; and
You can realize income and other tax savings.

What Are My Options?

You can use life insurance and annuities to shape your charitable gifts and to ensure your generosity does not have an adverse effect on your family’s resources. By working with a Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company (MassMutual) financial professional, you can develop and manage a plan to maximize your charitable gift while simultaneously providing advantages to you and your heirs. It starts by choosing a plan of charitable giving that best fits your vision and financial circumstances. There are many options when crafting a charitable giving plan, including the following:

Designate a charity as beneficiary of life insurance or annuities
Gift a life insurance policy to charity
Establish a charitable gift annuity
Establish a charitable remainder trust

Designate a charitable beneficiary

A simple method of using life insurance or annuities for charitable giving is to designate a charity as the beneficiary of the life insurance policy or annuity contract. By naming the charity as beneficiary, you remain the contract owner with the ability to change the amount that is passed on to the charity at any time. Using this method, you also have access to any cash values² available. You will not receive an income tax deduction because you can still use the cash values and change the beneficiary arrangement. However, you can provide a potentially larger gift to charity by creating a legacy with the death benefit proceeds.

There can be a significant tax advantage to naming a charity as the beneficiary of an annuity. Charities receiving the proceeds of annuities at your death will not pay income taxes on death proceeds, whereas individual heirs may pay income taxes on amounts received from annuity contracts.

² Distributions under the policy (including cash dividends and partial/full surrenders) are not subject to taxation up to the amount paid into the policy (cost basis). If the policy is a Modified Endowment Contract, policy loans and/or distributions are taxable to the extent of gain and are subject to a 10% tax penalty. Access to cash values through borrowing or partial surrenders will reduce the policy’s cash value and death benefit, increase the chance the policy will lapse, and may result in a tax liability if the policy terminates before the death of the insured.

Gift a life insurance policy to charity

You may have life insurance that is no longer needed for family protection. In this instance, you can benefit a charity by making a gift of the policy to that organization. Because the charity receives all of the policy rights, including rights to any cash value, you may receive a current income tax deduction equal to what you have put into the policy. Here are some advantages and disadvantages to this option:

Advantages and Disadvantages

Advantages	Disadvantages
Gift of policy is tax-deductible*	Donor lacks control of policy
Death benefit guaranteed	Donor loses access to cash values
Charity has access to cash values	Gift is irrevocable
Simple to understand and administer
Adds or creates a “legacy”

* Tax deduction may be limited and a qualified appraisal may be required.

Set up a Charitable Gift Annuity

Another option would be to purchase a charitable gift annuity (CGA). In a CGA, you provide cash or property to a charity in exchange for the charity’s promise to pay you an annuity or fixed payment for life. To create a CGA, you should work with a charity that already has or is willing to set this type of program up. A CGA is easy to establish; however, you must give up ownership and control of your property. You may receive an income tax deduction equal to the value of the property gifted less the present value of your expected annuity stream.

Life insurance may also be purchased on your life to replace the loss of assets to charity. You may combine the life insurance with a wealth replacement trust (WRT) to achieve estate tax savings.

Establish a Charitable Remainder Trust

You may wish to set up a charitable remainder trust (CRT) to provide an income stream to you or family members while ultimately benefiting a charity. After creating the CRT, property is gifted to the trust that may be sold without incurring an immediate capital gains tax. The trust will pay income to you or your beneficiaries for life or a specified term. The amount remaining in the trust at the end of that period is paid to the charity. The use of a charitable trust can provide a stream of income to you, similar to a CGA, and will ultimately serve to benefit the charity.

There are two forms of CRTs — annuity trusts and unitrusts. An annuity trust pays a fixed amount to you each year. A unitrust pays a fixed percentage of the value of the trust assets to you each year. The techniques summary chart offers more details on annuity trusts and unitrusts.

As with the CGA, a life insurance policy may also be purchased on your life, to replace the assets that are transferred to charity. You may combine the life insurance with a WRT, discussed in more detail below.

Wealth Replacement Trust

If you are concerned about the potential loss of assets to your family as a result of your charitable giving, life insurance and a WRT may be used to “replace” the property gifted. You may create one to purchase life insurance on your life, for the benefit of your family, to replace the assets that are given to charity. Life insurance premiums may be paid by utilizing the income from a CRT or CGA to make gifts to the trust. The trust then uses these gifts to pay the premium on the life insurance policy. The death benefit proceeds from the life insurance may then offset or replace the value of the property gifted to charity.

Cash gifts — donate cash to charity.	Immediate benefit to the charity.	Annual giving dependent upon cash needs of donor.	Amount donated qualifies for income tax deduction. Subject to 60% of Adjusted Gross Income (AGI) limit for gift to public charity.	Pay charity directly.
Ordinary income property — donate inventory, copyrights, depreciated or amortized property, partnership interests, or short-term capital gains property.	Immediate benefit to the charity.	Donor may need the property to provide income.	Income tax deduction of cost basis; no recognition of loss or gain on the transfer.	Transfer by title or deed.
Long-term capital gains property — donate real estate, securities, business interests or capital assets held longer than one year.	Immediate benefit to the charity.	Donor may need the property to provide income.	In most cases, donor may elect immediate income tax deduction for either fair market value (30% AGI cap) or cost basis (50% AGI cap) for gift to public charity; no recognition of loss or gain to donor on transfer.	Transfer by title or deed.
Bequest gift — cash or property at donor’s death.	Retain control of cash/property.	Cash/property may be needed by survivor’s family.	Estate tax charitable deduction; no income tax deduction.	Donor must specify the charitable bequest in will or trust.
Wealth replacement trust (WRT) — use life insurance to replace value of property gifted to charity.	Death benefit can replace gifted property value for family’s financial protection.	Donor has no control of life insurance.	Life insurance death benefits received free of estate and income taxes.	Retain tax and legal counsel to set up trust within relevant local laws.
Charity as beneficiary — named in donor’s life insurance policy.	Access policy cash value and dividends;³ avoid probate; retain ability to change beneficiary.	No current benefit for charity.	Estate tax charitable deduction; no income tax deduction.	Execute a change of beneficiary form.
New policy — issued to charity as owner.	Life insurance can result in a greater gift versus a cash gift of equivalent premium outlay.	Donor has no control of policy.	Income tax deduction for cash donated to charities for premiums paid; no estate or gift taxes; policy excluded from donor’s taxable estate.	Charity is owner and beneficiary. Donor pays premiums to charity.
Existing policy gift — transfer policy to charity.	Life insurance not required to meet personal needs is removed from individual’s taxable estate.	No access to cash value or dividends; donor relinquishes control of policy. Donor is required to obtain a qualified appraisal if policy value is $5,000 or greater.	Income tax deduction for the lower of policy’s value or cost basis; income tax deduction for additional cash gifts for premiums; exclusion from estate taxation; charitable deduction offsets any inclusion of death benefit policy in estate under the 3-year rule.	Change ownership to charity; donor gifts the amount of the premium to the charity; charity makes premium payments.
IRA charitable rollover	Distribution not included in income; don’t have to itemize (no deduction); counts toward current year Required Minimum Distribution (RMD).	Must be over age 70½ at time of gift; Cannot exceed $108,000 per tax year; made permanent in the Protecting Americans from Tax Hikes (PATH) Act of 2015.	Distribution not included in income. Counts toward current year RMD.	If donor meets requirements; IRA custodian directly transfers amount to public charity.
Bargain sales — sell property to charity at less than fair market value (FMV); excess of FMV over sale amount is gift.	Donor receives cash in exchange for charitable gift.	Possible wasting of basis allocated to the gift element of transaction.	Gift portion is income tax deductible; sale portion is taxable gain.	Transfer by title or deed upon payment to donor.
Contribute property subject to debt — donate mortgaged property.	Donor’s debt/mortgage is forgiven.	Possible unrelated business taxable income (UBTI) tax issue for charity. Treated as a bargain sale.	Gift portion is income tax deductible; sale portion is reported as a taxable gain.	Formal transfer by title or deed.
Charitable remainder trust (CRT) — an irrevocable trust providing current income payments to a non-charitable beneficiary followed by payment of the remainder interest to a charity: Charitable remainder annuity trust (CRAT) — income interest is fixed annuity. Charitable remainder unitrust (CRUT) — income interest is fixed percentage of trust value.	Income stream to non-charitable beneficiary; potential replacement of property gifted to charity via separate WRT.	Donor must be willing to relinquish control of asset.	Any capital gains tax is deferred if trust sells assets; income tax deduction for present value of remainder interest.	Consult tax and legal counsel to draft trust documents.
Charitable lead trust (CLT) — an irrevocable trust providing current income payments to a charity followed by payment of the remainder interest to a non-charitable beneficiary (e.g., family members).	Current benefit to charity; property passes to heirs at reduced gift tax cost; income tax deduction (if grantor trust).	Loss of access during term of trust income.	Tax deduction for present value of income interest (if grantor trust); gift to heirs is present value of remainder.	Consult tax and legal counsel to draft trust documents.
Pooled income fund — donor gives to a charity-maintained fund retaining the income interest amount earned by the fund.	Easier to use for smaller gifts; increase in potential returns versus individual investor.	Grantor relinquishes control of property; available only where charity maintains a pooled income fund.	Appreciated assets sold by charity without capital gains tax; donor receives income tax deduction for present value of remainder interest.	Donor gives the property; charity establishes and maintains the fund.
Charitable gift annuities — donor gives cash or property and receives life annuity from charity.	Easier to establish for smaller gifts.	Available only where charity offers CGA.	Income tax deduction is excess of cash/property fair market value over present value of the annuity.	Donor gives the property or cash and receives the annuity from the charity.
Remainder interest in personal residences and farms — donor gifts remainder interest to charity but retains lifetime use.	Receive income tax deduction while retaining use of the property.	Potential for conflict with heirs regarding use of property.	Income tax deduction for present value of remainder interest.	Consult tax and legal counsel to draft documents.
Qualified conservation contribution — donor gives qualified real property interest solely for conservation use.	Donor retains use or possession while benefiting charity; conservation use can be perpetual.	Loss of development rights.	Immediate income tax deduction of value of the qualified contribution.	Consult tax and legal counsel.

³ Dividends are not guaranteed.

Planning For Charitable Giving

Important Tax Facts About Charitable Giving

The charity must be “qualified”

For tax purposes, your donation must be to a public or private organization that meets the Internal Revenue Code requirements for qualified charities. If your donation is not to a qualified charity, you may not take a tax deduction.

The gift must be cash or property

Only gifts of money or property are deductible. Examples of property include stocks, bonds, mutual funds, real estate, and life insurance policies. The value of your personal services and time volunteered to the charity is not tax-deductible.

The gift may be exempt from federal gift taxes

In most cases there are no federal gift taxes due on donations to a qualified charity. Also, gifts to such charities may reduce your federal estate taxes. There is no limit on the amount of the gift or estate tax charitable deduction.

The charitable organization pays no taxes on the gift

In most situations, charitable organizations pay no income tax on the earnings of donated property or the receipt of a lifetime gift or bequests.

Charitable Giving Begins With a Plan

Deciding to make a difference through charitable giving is easy; determining a philanthropic plan that is best for you may not be. MassMutual has a network of financial professionals who can help you develop and choose a charitable giving plan that fits your situation and philanthropic goals. Our financial professionals are supported by a highly skilled and experienced team of estate and business planning professionals that are available for them to consult with on your case.

For more information on charitable giving, or any of MassMutual’s suite of life insurance products and annuities, please contact your financial professional.

Additional Resources