Wills and Planned Giving - Skagit Land Trust

Planned gifts not only assist the natural world, the community, and the work of Skagit Land Trust, but the method of giving you choose may offer significant financial benefits to you and your family. You can name Skagit Land Trust as the direct beneficiary of specific assets, a portion or percentage of your estate, or of your residual estate after payment of other specific bequests. Bequests to Skagit Land Trust are exempt from state and federal estate taxes and can therefore offer substantial estate tax savings. We strongly recommend that you discuss any planned gift with your attorney, accountant, or other financial advisors. We encourage you to also contact the Trust. Working together can help you maximize the positive impacts of your gift.

Useful Information

Skagit Land Trust EIN # 91-1533402

Mailing Address:
PO Box 1017
Mount Vernon, WA 98273

Office Address:
1020 South 3rd Street
Mount Vernon, WA 98273

360-428-7878
info@skagitlandtrust.org

Skagit Land Trust has a brokerage account with Charles Schwab that accepts stock, bond and mutual funds gifts. Please let us know of your gift so we can thank you and send the tax receipt.

Brokerage Company:
Charles Schwab & Co
Account #: 8378-8129
DTC #: 0164 Code 40
Account Registration: SKAGIT LAND TRUST
Account Type: CHARITY NONPROFIT ACCOUNT

Skagit Land Trust’s Investment Advisor:
Empirical Wealth Management
1420 Fifth Ave, Suite 3150
Seattle, WA 98101
206-923-3474

Ways of Giving

The most common options for giving and their advantages:

Cash is the most common way to support Skagit Land Trust’s work far into the future. We welcome unrestricted (or undesignated) planned gifts, as this provides the Trust with the flexibility to allocate funds to the highest and best use for land conservation.

We also welcome bequests designated for the Stewardship Fund, to help us manage and restore protected land; for specific conservation areas; for our Land Opportunity Fund for land conservation. If you want your gift restricted to other uses, we recommend that you contact the Trust to discuss, so that we can meet your goals and your intentions for your gift.

Stocks, Bonds, Mutual Funds, and Other Publicly Traded Securities are easily donated, and tax laws make gifts of assets that have appreciated in value highly advantageous, giving you and your heirs exceptional tax savings.

Gifting appreciated securities to the Trust avoids capital gains taxes, as does naming the Trust as the primary or contingent beneficiary of proceeds from any mutual fund, stock fund, or bond account.

Retirement Assets, whether an IRA or other retirement plan, which designate Skagit Land Trust as beneficiary constitute a charitable gift which is deductible for estate tax purposes.

For income tax purposes, because Skagit Land Trust is a tax-exempt charity, the Trust will not have to pay the income taxes otherwise due on retirement assets, and therefore nature and land conservation benefit from the full value of your gift. For estate gifts, please remember that these assets are directed by a separate beneficiary designation form, not by your will.

Personal Property and Tangible Gifts can be a wonderful opportunity for you and Skagit Land Trust. A donation of tangible property, such as artwork, is usually deductible at its market value, and if handled appropriately can avoid capital gains tax. Because an appraisal is often necessary, please discuss gifts of tangible property with us.

Land is an asset that, unlike with many charities which hesitate to accept donated real property, Skagit Land Trust often considers (whether with or without structures). Real estate and land management are what we do. Whether your gift is land that we hold as one of our conservation areas, or developed or undeveloped property that we can sell and use the proceeds for more land protection, it all helps save land for tomorrow.

Gifts of land to the Trust are tax deductible. As a bequest, the value of your land is removed from your taxable estate. If donated while you are living, the land is a charitable gift, deductible for income tax purposes. If you wish to protect your land forever, as a conservation area or sanctuary or through a conservation easement, we encourage you to first consult with us so that we can determine the extent to which we are able to commit to its permanent protection. By talking with us, the probability that we or a future board of the Trust can accept your gift is increased, as we can determine the permanent protection responsibilities your gift of sanctuary land would require of the Trust.

Where we determine that we are the best stewards of the property, Skagit Land Trust will hold the land and manage it as a sanctuary. If the land is to be sold, in many cases Skagit Land Trust can place a conservation easement on the land before the sale, thus protecting the land’s conservation value forever. The sales proceeds can then be used to benefit our conservation work.
If the land does not have conservation value, the proceeds from its sale can be used to help protect other land. Your wishes can be set out in your will, directing the Trust to sell the land and use the sales proceeds to support our overall conservation and stewardship responsibilities or acquire other suitable conservation land.

For more detailed information about any of these planned gift options, please email us at info@skagitlandtrust.org.