How will you leave a legacy?
by: Kevin Pelkey
I learned a very interesting fact recently: less than 30% of the US population has a Will on record.
What’s even more interesting is that data covers the entire economic spectrum. A good case in point: Prince…a successful musician passed away without a Will. Some chaos has ensued without instructions for how to handle his estate.
What’s fascinating to me is that we spend inordinate amount of time each day planning tasks, vacations, and more. We make checklists for the things to do today. We plot out how we will use our time when we go somewhere on vacation. Many of us plan what we will have on our dinner menus every week making grocery shopping easier. We plan for our next big purchases. And here at Habitat, we plan when and where we will build.
All this planning is so important to make us both effective and efficient. So, why, then, do so few people plan for how our affairs will be handled when we are no longer here? Maybe it’s as simple as it is a hard topic to think about. Maybe it’s that there is fear for how much it will cost. Maybe it’s not even knowing where to start.
Lakes Area Habitat For Humanity is excited to announce that we are partnering with FreeWill.
Yes, it means exactly what it sounds like…and much more! We have some new options on our website including information on how to create Wills for free! We also have information on how to transfer stocks, name us as a beneficiary, and more. We have information for how to designate Qualified Charitable Contributions from you 401(k) or other savings mechanisms. We have tools to help you plan!
The process for creating a Will is super easy. To make it even easier, here’s a link that will bring you directly to the tools to take you through a step-by-step process to produce a legal Will in your state of residence. Of course, you have the option to designate beneficiaries and we hope you will consider us as one. For us to plan long-term, it will be helpful to know gifts are coming in the future. We wish for everyone to have long, healthy lives, but it’s pretty true for most people that our capacity to make our largest gifts comes after we pass away. To that point, the latest data says over $17 trillion will be passed through to new hands in the next short years.
Imagine what LAHFH could do if even a small percentage of that transfer comes to us. Imagine the plans we could implement to radically ramp up our service to families in need of a decent place to live. Imagine our progress towards eliminating poverty housing from the Lakes Area.
Imagine what is possible if we all just do a little planning. Join us with YOUR Planned Giving. Give FreeWill a try & plan for your (and our) future.
In peace,
Kevin Pelkey, Executive Director
