Chart comparing Planned Giving Opportunities.
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To find out more about specific strategies for Planned Gifts, click on these categories of gifts:

• Bequests
• Charitable Gift Annuity and Pooled Income Fund
• Retirement Plan Asset Gifts – IRAs, 401(k), etc.
• Life Insurance Policies
• Charitable Lead Trust and Charitable Remainder Trust
  
  
• Planned Giving Advisory Committee
• Please contact me

"Putting The Philadelphia Orchestra in my will gives me confidence that the Orchestra will continue to educate and inspire our youth." - Jane Kesson Wister Society Member

Other Gift Considerations
Testamentary gifts or bequests are among the Orchestra's most important sources of individual giving, meeting current as well as endowment needs. Bequests can be in the form of a specific cash amount, specific property, or a percentage of the remainder of the donor's estate. The latter permits more flexibility in estate planning.

Using your retirement plan as a gift vehicle is a good way to make a bequest to the Orchestra. Retirement plans that remain in your estate are often taxed twice before receipt by your heirs.

You can designate The Philadelphia Orchestra as a beneficiary of the balance in your IRA, Keogh, tax-sheltered annuity, or qualified pension or profit-sharing plan. In your beneficiary designation form you can designate a dollar amount or a percentage of the retirement account, for example, or you can designate the entire amount left in your retirement plan for the Orchestra.

A member of the Orchestra's development staff will be pleased to work with you and your attorney or other advisor to provide language to effect your bequest. For more information about making a planned gift to The Philadelphia Orchestra, please contact: "Ned" Donoghue, Director of Planned Giving, at 215.893.3146 or ndonoghue@philorch.org

Retirement Plan Asset Gifts
You can leave the Orchestra a part or all of your IRA, 401(k) Plan, HR-10 Plan or other retirement plan by naming the Orchestra as a partial or entire beneficiary of your plan. Retirement plan assets are more highly taxed than most other assets in a person's estate plan. So if you leave them to your family members, they receive less per dollar in the plan than they would from another asset. Accordingly, when you are arranging your financial affairs in your estate plan, it is often wiser to have charitable gifts such as bequests to the Orchestra made payable out of your retirement plan assets rather than other assets. It will mean a greater net estate for your family beneficiaries. The director of planned giving would be happy to consult with you on such actions at no cost and with no obligation.

IRA Rollovers are explained in detail on the Planned Giving News page.

Ben Alexander and his wife Lorraine shown with good friend and retired former Philadelphia Orchestra concertmaster Norman Carol and his wife Elinor at a Wister Society reception in 2005. Ben Alexander, longtime supporter and emeritus Board member of The Philadelphia Orchestra: “Lorraine and I want to enjoy the good life and leave a legacy for our children and grandchildren. So we did a planned gift which gave us immediate tax and income benefits and supports our great Philadelphia Orchestra when we’re gone. A life income and a legacy. It just makes good sense!”

Life Insurance Policies
You can make the Orchestra a beneficiary of a life insurance policy by writing on the beneficiary designation form "The Philadelphia Orchestra Association, for its general operating expenses" and then name a set amount (e.g., "$100,000") or a percentage (e.g., "50%") or the entire proceeds.

A charitable lead trust is a trust which pays income to a charity (this is the "lead" portion), such as the Orchestra, for a period of years and then at the end of that period distributes the principal to individuals, usually the children or grandchildren of the person who creates the trust. Why would someone create such a trust? The answer is often that it is done in order to reduce very significantly the gift and estate taxes which would otherwise be payable on the principal being transferred down to successive generations of the family. The tax benefits are very worthwhile and that is why sophisticated holders of family wealth choose them. The added benefit is that you have the opportunity to be very generous to the Orchestra in the process. Our director of planned giving (at no charge to you and with no obligation), or your personal tax or estate planning advisor, can produce custom made illustrations of how this trust could work for you.

Charitable Remainder Trust
A charitable remainder trust pays a set amount or a variable amount to you, or to other persons whom you designate, and then after a period of years (usually upon the death of the person receiving the income) the principal (this is the "remainder") is paid to the Orchestra. You can set up these trusts during lifetime with particularly advantageous income tax deductions to you, or you can set up such a trust in your will to take effect upon your death with equally important estate tax savings. Funding such a trust during life with a highly appreciated asset is a common practice for those with significant assets and sophisticated advisors. You can receive personalized illustrations of what the savings are for you and your family from the Orchestra's director of planned giving (at no charge and with no obligation), or you can ask your personal advisor for such illustrations.

Harold and Franny Rosenbluth, music lovers, shown here at a Wister Society reception with their friend, Norman Carol, retired former concertmaster of The Philadelphia Orchestra. Harold Rosenbluth, chair of the Orchestra’s emeritus board : “Franny and I had our first date at a Philadelphia Orchestra concert at the Academy of Music. Over fifty years later we took our children and grandchildren back to those same ‘nosebleed’ seats high up in the ampitheater! After conferring with the Orchestra’s director of planned giving, we came up with a planned gift to support the music we love and help sustain the famous ‘Philadelphia Sound’ for our children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren to come.”

Is a Charitable Gift Annuity right for you? Would you like to convert low-yielding or non-income producing assets into lifelong income? Are you interested in receiving a fixed income stream, no matter what happens in the financial markets? Would you like to minimize your capital gains tax and receive a current income tax deduction for a future gift?

Through a charitable gift annuity, you will receive a specified rate of return, based on your age at the time the planned gift is created. Current rates are listed below, illustrating a $20,000 single life annuity.

For a no-obligation personalized illustration, contact the Orchestra’s Planned Giving Office.

"The Philadelphia Orchestra has been such an important part of my life for a long, long time. I just want to give back to something that has given me such pleasure." As to her Orchestra charitable gift annuity, Joanne says, "It's been a good investment and all those tax advantages are marvelous!" - Joanne Greenspun Joanne Greenspun

Pooled Life Income Fund
The Orchestra's Pooled Life Income Fund is a type of charitable trust that operates in a similar manner to a mutual fund. Your gift of cash, securities or other property is pooled with gifts from others. If you give stocks with a low cost basis, however, you realize no capital gains tax on the gift to the Pooled Income Fund. This is a very important advantage. The Orchestra invests all of the Fund with the primary objective of current income and secondary objective of growth of principal. A share of the Fund's net income proportionate to your share of the Fund's principal will be paid every year to you or your designated beneficiary. Upon your death or the death of your designated beneficiary, the Fund will distribute your proportionate share to the Orchestra. The Fund's return was 3% for 2005, 2.99% for 2004, 1.95% for 2003, 3.36% for 2002, 2.94% for 2001, and 3.30% for 2000.

The Philadelphia Orchestra strongly recommends that all donors consult their own professional advisers before making planned gifts.

Planned Giving Advisory Committee
The Philadelphia Orchestra's Planned Giving Advisory Committee is made up of a select group of professionals from the fields of law, financial planning, banking, trusts, investments and insurance. We take this opportunity to thank these professionals who have demonstrated a supportive commitment of their time and expertise to The Philadelphia Orchestra. These professionals have particular experience and interest in either planned giving, or related tax law or in the professional disciplines that border on personal philanthropy. We appreciate the dedicated attention that they give as we meet throughout the year to discuss matters pertaining to planned gifts and the achievement of the Orchestra's long term financial goals.

Chairman: Martin A. Heckscher, Esquire

Norman E. Donoghue, II, Director of Planned Giving

Please contact me