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Gifts of Life Insurance

> You're considering a gift made after your death
> You prefer to make a gift from income instead of principal

You may be surprised to learn that your surplus, paid-up life insurance policies can be used to fund a gift to The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston.

If, for instance, you acquired several life insurance policies when your family was younger, with the children now grown the coverage may be more than you need. If you donate a policy, your charitable deduction will be the lesser of the fair market value of the policy – we can guide you in determining this – or your cost basis, which is the total of your net premium payments.

Alternately, your annual income may be healthy, but you know that ongoing family obligations will make it difficult for you to accumulate capital. You want to make a significant gift to the UT Health Science Center, but wonder how you will gather the resources to do so. If you take out a new life insurance policy as a gift, you can deliver a large benefit to us from income rather than capital. You will make deductible annual gifts to us in the amount of the premium payments; we will, in turn, pay the premiums to the insurer.

You can also transfer ownership of an existing policy which is not yet paid up. Your charitable deduction will be determined in the same way as if you had given us a paid-up policy. We reserve the right to surrender your policy or to keep it in force; you can make deductible gifts to offset our premium payments if we elect to continue the policy.

F.Y.I.:

It is important that you also name the UT Health Science Center as the irrevocable owner of the policy and not just the beneficiary. The IRS does not allow deductions for your premium payments if you retain ownership of the policy.

If you have borrowed against a life insurance policy, a subsequent gift of the policy will create taxable income for you -- the difference between the loan balance and the fair market value of the policy.

Email us or call us at 713-500-3213 so that we can assist you through every step of the process.

The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston
7000 Fannin, Suite 1200
Houston, TX 77030
713-500-3200 | 713-500-3216 (fax)
E-mail: Shirley.Druggan@uth.tmc.edu