OUR COMMUNITY

Has ECFS had a lasting impact on your life or the lives of loved ones? Including a legacy gift for the School as part of your estate planning can secure the same transformative experience for generations of ECFS students, helping to assure the School’s future while also possibly providing tax benefits for yourself and your family, all without sacrificing your current financial security.

Unless you designate otherwise, all planned gifts will be added to the School’s board-designated endowment when received to ensure that your gift supports ECFS in perpetuity. Each year, a percentage of the income generated by the endowment is used to preserve much of what makes our institution so special: to fund financial aid for deserving students, to provide professional development opportunities for our faculty, to provide experiential educational opportunities, and to enhance our campus facilities.

Planned gifts can come in the form of bequests, appreciated cash or securities, life insurance, retirement plans, gift annuities, retained life estate, or charitable trusts. They often offer substantial tax, estate planning, and other financial benefits. Please see the options below for an overview of planned giving options and consult with your legal and financial advisors to turn your legacy aspirations into a plan.

Your bequest will support the overall mission of ECFS unless you have discussed a specific gift designation with the School. You can indicate that you would like to leave a certain percentage of your estate or trust to the School or indicate a specific amount.

If you are considering including ECFS in your will or trust, here is some sample bequest language to share with your attorney:

You can support ECFS in several simple and savvy ways without reducing your income or diminishing your savings. Many types of assets can be transferred to ECFS without legal expense. You may have bank investments, retirement, insurance, stock, or mutual-fund accounts that you can use to accomplish your charitable goals. All of these assets can be transferred by completing a P.O.D. (Payable on Death) or T.O.D. (Transfer on Death) form, or beneficiary designation form from your financial advisor or brokerage firm. This will instruct the account custodian what to do with the account after your passing.

Gifts of IRAs, 401(k)s, or other qualified retirement plans are popular planned gifts because they require no upfront cash — you simply designate ECFS as the beneficiary of all or a portion of your retirement plan through your plan administrator. You can continue to withdraw during your lifetime and even change the beneficiary if circumstances change. After your lifetime, the residue of your plan passes tax-free to ECFS.

Using a beneficiary designation form, you may designate ECFS as the beneficiary of all or a percentage of your brokerage accounts. After you pass, your selected account balance will be transferred to our organization.

If your family no longer needs the financial protection of your life insurance policy, consider designating ECFS as a beneficiary to receive all or a percentage of the policy proceeds. After your passing, you will receive an income tax deduction for donating a paid-up life insurance policy and estate tax savings. You may also transfer ownership of a paid-up life insurance policy to ECFS. We may elect to cash in the policy now or hold it.

A charitable lead trust, or “non-grantor lead trust,” allows you to provide an income to ECFS for a specified length of time, after which the trust assets pass to your heirs. To establish a charitable lead trust, you contribute securities or other appreciating assets to a trustee who will invest the assets and make “income” payments to ECFS. When the trust ends, the remaining principal passes to family members or other beneficiaries you have named.

A charitable remainder trust allows you to provide an income to yourself or others for life (or a term of years), after which the trust assets go to the School to help educate ECFS students for years to come.

Just as our founder Felix Adler left a legacy for ECFS students and graduates, you too can leave your legacy for the future of ECFS. The Felix Adler Circle recognizes individuals and families who include ECFS in their estate plans. Membership is bestowed without regard to gift level, as every commitment represents a lifetime pledge supporting the mission of ECFS. Circle members are essential in ensuring ECFS’s continued financial health and tradition of excellence in progressive education.

You will join countless others in the Felix Adler Circle by making a planned gift. Members of the Felix Adler Circle are:

When it came time to discuss their estate plans, Hal Freedman ’60 and his wife Willi Rudowsky prioritized organizations with a few key characteristics that resonated with them: involvement in the arts or education; organizational longevity; and engagement with social, political, or existential issues. ECFS met their criteria.

“I credit ECFS with shaping the kind of person I have become,” Hal says. “At our 50th Fieldston reunion, our class noted how many of us went into education, medicine, and the arts rather than politics or business, as was the case with graduates of similar private schools. We entered professions that gave back to the community.”

Hal and Willi aim to expand their longstanding support for ECFS by making a legacy gift to the School, specifically designated to provide financial assistance for students from underrepresented communities and those with disabilities.

Contact
Stephanie Pilla, Associate Director of Leadership Giving & Strategic Engagements
spilla@ecfs.org / 212-712-6242

Please share your plans so that we may express our gratitude and recognize you as a member of the Felix Adler Circle, or reach out to discuss a specific gift designation or if you have any questions.