Lehigh University:

Bequests
Create a lasting legacy and help to ensure the future of Lehigh as we prepare the leaders of tomorrow. Initiated by Asa Packer at Lehigh, gifts restricted by will to Lehigh's endowment provide a perpetual source of income. Your bequest may be in the form of a specific amount of cash or property, or a percentage of the remainder of your estate. In either case, a bequest to Lehigh is deductible for federal estate tax purposes.
     
Language approved by the university's attorney for an effective bequest to Lehigh is available upon request from the Development Office. If you have already provided for Lehigh in your estate plans and wish to notify Lehigh of your intentions, please complete the Tower Society Confidential Information Form.

You may want to consider using one of four common types of bequest provisions:

• Specific Bequests. Lehigh would receive a specific dollar amount.
• Residuary Bequests. Lehigh would receive a stated percentage of all of the remainder of your estate after specific legacies have been distributed and taxes, debts, and settlement costs paid.
• Trust Remainder Bequests. Named beneficiaries would receive income from a trust fund established by your will. Upon the death of the surviving beneficiaries, all or part of the principal of your trust would go to Lehigh.
     
Bequests of Retirement Assets
Retirement assets can be subject to multiple levels of taxation.

• First, retirement savings are subject to federal income tax, as received by either the retiree or his/her heirs.
• Second, failure to take the required minimum distribution after age 70 1/2 results in a 50% tax on the undistributed amount.  
• Third, at death, any remaining account balance is included in the calculation of the gross estate.  
• Fourth, a generation-skipping tax may apply to substantial account balances that pass to grandchildren or to other remote generations.
     
However, careful planning for the disposition of retirement plan assets can help to avoid undesirable tax costs. Naming Lehigh as the beneficiary of a retirement plan will reduce the size of a taxable estate and avoid income taxation on those funds. In certain situations, a charitable gift of a retirement account can improve the donor's overall tax consequences, increase the amounts passing to heirs, and minimize income, estate and excise taxes.