“We hope that our contribution to the Jewish Community will continue to inspire our children to practice Tzedakah and Gemilut Hasadim as our parents and grandparents demonstrated for us.”
– Gideon Bernstein
The concept of planning your legacy may seem a daunting task. But here at the Jewish Community Foundation Orange County, it can become meaningful, enjoyable and deeply fulfilling. We simplify the process by breaking it down into four essential steps, which you can approach at your own pace.
Promise
You decide that you want to leave something to the Jewish community – in Orange County, Israel or elsewhere. At this moment you may not know yet exactly how you will fund your legacy, but you are ready to complete a Letter of Intent making a promise to someday support the organizations and causes that are important to you.
Honor
You share your personal statement (always optional) about why you are creating a legacy plan or your hopes for the future. In this statement you may speak of your grandparents, to your grandchildren, about the organizations that have benefited from your leadership or your hopes for the future.
Formalize
Formalizing your plan assures that what you envision and promise will be fulfilled. You can identify the organizations and causes you wish to support and decide how you will fund your legacy – through a bequest, insurance, a beneficiary designation of your IRA or other pension asset, or by establishing a life income plan.
Working with the Foundation, you determine how you would like to allocate unrestricted funds and sign bequest documents or set up an Endowment Fund to detail percentages, contingencies and cover the “what ifs” of your personalized legacy plan. This is also a time where you can specify how you would like to involve your family in carrying out your legacy.
Have you already formalized a gift to the Foundation or one of our Partner organizations? Sign a Legacy Gift Confirmation Form today so we can honor and recognize your promise.
Fund
Your idea becomes reality because you have planned well. Your funds come to the community – into a permanent endowment fund in your family name – for the causes and beneficiaries that you have designated. You have kept your promise to the community that you love. It will now be there, stronger, for those you leave behind.
