How gifting real estate into a trust can set up your retirement
Question: Wow! Do I wish I could talk to that family (in your April 3 column)! I just assisted a couple with a charitable remainder trust that saved all the capital gains on a $1.2 million dollar home, gave them $600,000 in cash and income for life that more than pays their retirement home costs for the rest of their lives! Give them my number. John Payton, Regional Director of Planned Giving, Point Loma Nazarene University, San Diego.
Answer: This isn’t really a question, of course, but is does point to a tax-advantaged option — gifting real estate — a surprising number of people use to dispose of their properties. See previous Realty Q&A.
The Giving Institute in Glenview, Ill., estimates that $260 billion was contributed to schools, museums, the scouts and similar groups in 2005, the last year for which such information is available. Based on previous years, roughly 25 percent of that amount was real estate