Life Insurance
Benefits of Giving Through Life Insurance:
(1) Saving you money in taxes- the gift is immediate, which gives you immediate tax deductions
(2) Requiring no out-of-pocket expense
(3) Allowing you to make a larger contribution due to its long term venue, which accumulates small amounts of money over time
(4) Helping you avoid estate problems by naming Free Market as a beneficiary
(5) Designing it to meet your giving desires and assuring complete confidentiality
How to Give Through Life Insurance:
Life insurance is an asset that can add flexibility to your charitable giving plans. Sometimes, life changes alter your life insurance needs. For example, you may currently own previously purchased policies that are no longer necessary, which could play a major role in your charitable giving plans.
Examples of unnecessary policies include:
(1) A policy on your life to protect a spouse for whom it is no longer necessary, or a child who is now financially independent
(2) A policy bought to guarantee that money will be available for your children's education, but their education was paid by some other means
(3) A policy purchased to protect a business that no longer exists or no longer needs protection
These life insurance policies may be considered "obsolete" and don't need to be held. While the policies may not benefit you for the purpose for which they were originally intended, they could assist you in meeting other goals.
The first American life insurance enterprises can be traced back to the late colonial period. The Presbyterian Synods in Philadelphia and New York set up the Corporation for Relief of Poor and Distressed Widows and Children of Presbyterian Ministers in 1759; the Episcopalian ministers organized a similar fund in 1769. In the half century from 1787 to 1837, twenty-six companies offering life insurance to the general public opened their doors, but they rarely survived more than a couple of years and sold few policies [Figures 1 and 2]. The only early companies to experience much success in this line of business were the Pennsylvania Company for Insurances on Lives and Granting Annuities (chartered 1812), the Massachusetts Hospital Life Insurance Company (1818), the Baltimore Life Insurance Company (1830), the New York Life Insurance and Trust Company (1830), and the Girard Life Insurance, Annuity and Trust Company of Pennsylvania
