A will allows you to designate who receives your assets remaining upon your death.  Your will may stipulate a specific amount of money or a specific percentage of your remaining assets that will be distributed to each individual or organization.  To support us in this way, simply insert the following language into your will during your next update, selecting from one of the three options in parentheses:

I hereby give, devise and bequeath to the Army War College Foundation, Inc. (the sum of $___________) or (______% of the remainder of my estate) or (the remainder of my estate).  This is an unrestricted gift and may be used to further the purposes of the Army War College Foundation, Inc.

Naming our Foundation in your will is a revocable process should your future needs change.

As an alternative to leaving these accounts or policies to your estate, you may name an individual or an organization as the beneficiary (sometimes called POD) to receive the contents of the account.  While the procedure may differ by types of account or by company, it generally requires completing a company-specific form specifying your wishes.  In this case, naming the Army War College Foundation, Inc. as beneficiary ensures the proceeds from the account, annuity or policy would be donated in support of our mission.

In any case, you retain full control of these assets and may change your mind if your future needs should change.

You may name an individual or an organization as the beneficiary (sometimes called POD or TOD) to receive the contents of the account upon your death.  However, you may also transfer ownership of a policy whose protection you no longer need to the Army War College Foundation. By transferring ownership of the policy, you are making an irrevocable decision to give full control over the policy to our Foundation.

This Legacy gift offers the potential for a present-day tax benefit for you as you may receive an income tax deduction for the smaller of the Fair Market Value of the policy at the time, or your Adjusted Cost Basis.  (Unfortunately, if both the Fair Market Value of the policy and the Adjusted Cost Basis exceed $5,000, an appraisal of the policy is required for income tax deduction purposes.  Additionally, the myriad of insurance products available today typically requires consultation with a tax advisor for specific valuation of a policy.)

Once the transfer is complete, our Foundation becomes responsible for either paying the premiums on the policy or “redeeming” the policy for its cash value. If you continue to pay the premiums for the policy (via recurring donations to our Foundation) you would continue to receive income tax deductions for those donations (if you itemize) and our Foundation would receive the full benefit of the insurance policy upon your death.  Otherwise, our Foundation will decide either to pay the premiums on the policy or to “redeem” the policy for its cash value.

To repeat, making this modification is an irrevocable decision to give full control over the policy to our Foundation.