Overcoming Objections: Trust in Place

I was recently speaking with a gift officer about a donor who said all their money would be going into a trust when they pass and they aren’t planning on making changes. Any changes at this point would be difficult and costly.

Like most things in our line of work, this challenge requires asking some additional questions. One of the questions I would ask is, “If there was a way to make an estate commitment without having to make any significant changes to your current plans, would you be open to having that conversation?”

I want to know if there’s a possibility of a gift, or if they’re just not interested and the trust is a convenient way to politely decline. If there is interest, then you’re in luck. Because the trust will collect everything that isn’t already going somewhere else.

So, for example, if the donor has an IRA, they could make the UGA Foundation a beneficiary of those retirement assets (or even a portion of those assets) which takes just a few minutes to do. When the donor passes away, the IRA would go straight to UGAF and everything else that isn’t designated elsewhere would sweep into the trust. This is true of bank accounts, life insurance, or any type of account that allow a beneficiary designation.

This can be a very simple way to overcome the concern of redoing estate plans. If someone is passionate about UGA and wants to increase or endow their gift through a planned gift, we can help them accomplish it!