Gift Range: $100,000 or more

A grantor lead trust provides a donor with a charitable income-tax deduction for the present value of the payments the Lewis County Historical Society is to receive from the trust for a specified period of time. You, as the donor, however, continue to be taxed on the income earned by the trust each year—including the amount distributed to the Historical Society. (To avoid this negative tax result, donors often fund grantor lead trusts with tax-exempt securities.) At the end of the trust term, the assets are returned to the donor.

How It Works

1. Create trust agreement stating terms of the trust (usually for a term of years), transfer cash or other property to trustee, and receive and income tax deduction
2. Trustee invests and manages trust assets and makes annual payments to the Lewis County Historical Society
3. Remainder transferred back to you when trust term ends

Benefits

• Annual gift to the Lewis County Historical Society 
• Property is return to you, as the donor, at the end of the trust term
• Professional management of assets during the term of the trust
• Charitable income-tax deduction, but you are taxed on trust’s annual income