Life Insurance

Help to Secure Western's Vision for Tomorrow

Giving a life insurance policy is one way to maximize your contribution to Western. It enables you to make a significant, lasting gift to Western with minimal outlay of current savings or income. A gift of life insurance is a deferred gift, which means the proceeds from a gift commitment made now will be realized by Western sometime in the future. Donors often struggle between their desires to achieve philanthropic goals and their need to preserve their estates for their families. A gift of life insurance can eliminate this conflict.To ensure that your wishes are honoured, a bequest should be prepared in consultation with your lawyer and discussed with the Gift Planning Office at Western.

Advantages of Giving Life Insurance

• A gift of life insurance allows you to make a larger donation to Western than you would have thought you could afford, at relatively little cost.
• It does not reduce the value of your estate for your heirs.
• Life insurance proceeds are paid directly to Western and are not subject to probate and other estate fees.
• Life insurance can provide an annual tax credit or a tax credit in the year of death. How you structure your gift will depend on where you have the greatest need for tax relief. For example:

* You can opt to retain ownership of the life insurance policy and thus the flexibility to change the beneficiary over time as circumstances may require. If you choose this option, your estate will receive the tax credit when the gift is realized.


* When Western is both the owner and the beneficiary of a policy, the donor receives immediate tax savings. In these instances, the gift is irrevocable which means it cannot be changed.

Some Options

• You can purchase a new policy.
• You can donate an existing policy.
• You can make Western the beneficiary of a new or existing policy.
• You may have a life insurance policy from your employer or former employer that you want to donate to Western.
• You may want to consider wealth replacement insurance.

Create Your Legacy

To ensure that your particular needs are met and that your wishes are honoured, you should consult your life insurance agent and any other pertinent advisors. You should also contact Gift Planning Office to let us know about your intentions. Not only can we assist you in making sure things move along smoothly, we also need to discuss how you would like the eventual proceeds from your insurance policy put to use. It is also important for us to know whether you wish to be recognized for your contribution or prefer to remain anonymous.

If you have made arrangements to make a planned gift to Western, we request that you send us a completed Statement of Intent (8K PDF) form so that we may ensure proper administration of your gift.