Prince of Peace Abbey

A Benedictine Monastery in Oceanside, California

If you wish to support us, here are some of the ways to consider how you may contribute your gifts:

Donations and Planned Giving

The financial stability of the Prince of Peace Abbey is essential to its monastic mission and we invite your participation and generosity. While many of our benefactors and friends support the Abbey through outright gifts of cash or other property, there is a growing awareness of the value of providing long-term benefits to the Abbey through Planned Giving. Planned Giving offers friends of the Abbey and members of the Catholic community the opportunity to participate in accomplishing our Lord's work in a variety of ways, some of which provide mutual benefits for both the donor and the Abbey.

There are many types of Planned Gifts. You and your financial advisors can select a form of gift that is consistent with your personal values, accomplishes your charitable goals and takes into consideration your overall financial and estate plan. Besides simple will provisions, there are a number of life income plans available which can sometimes result in larger gifts than originally anticipated. Some of the ways to provide for the Abbey through Planned Gifts are as follows:

• Bequests

• Endowments

• Life Insurance

• Charitable Remainder Trusts

• Retained Life Estates

Planned gifts, as well as outright gifts, can be funded in a variety of ways, including cash, appreciated securities, mutual funds, retirement plans, real estate and business interests. The Abbey will work closely with you to help develop a plan that is best suited to wishes and desires. Planned gifts represent a sound "spiritual investment" in the work of the Abbey for generations to come.

Bequests

Charitable bequests are considered by many to be the heart of most planned giving programs. They are the most common form of planned gifts and one of the easiest ways to insure that your assets are distributed according to your wishes after your death. A bequest can also be a profound expression of faith and a lasting memorial of your Christian witness. Bequests are flexible, easy to establish and can vary in size and form. Sometimes, a simple codicil making provision for the Abbey can be added to an already existing will.

Endowments

Sometimes referred to as the "gift that lasts forever," an endowment is another way to exercise good stewardship while directing how your gift will be used in the future. An endowed gift is generally one in which the principal is left intact and the income only is used to provide support in perpetuity. Endowed gifts become a source of long-term security for the Abbey and its spiritual and corporal work. Since they help address both current needs and those in the foreseeable future, they can be considered an ultimate act of stewardship. Endowed gifts can be made immediately or in the form of a bequest and they can be established to support our general purposes or designated for more specific needs. An endowed gift is a living legacy that keeps on giving for you, year after year.

Life Insurance

Life insurance offers a donor the opportunity to make a generous gift to the Abbey either at no cost or with a relatively modest cash outlay. You can donate a paid-up life insurance policy by assigning the policy to the Prince of Peace Abbey and designating the Abbey as the beneficiary. In this case, there are no out of pocket costs to you and you receive an income tax deduction for your gift. Another cost-free method of using life insurance is to designate the Abbey as a beneficiary of all or a portion or your workplace-provided life insurance policy. Also, if you are a director or trustee of an organization that has purchased a life insurance policy with you as the insured, you may designate the Abbey as a beneficiary.

Charitable Remainder Trusts

Generally, the purpose of a trust is to set aside money or other assets to provide an income for yourself or another person. Charitable trusts have the additional advantage of establishing a tax-deductible gift for non-profit organizations. With a Charitable Remainder Trust, you irrevocably transfer cash and/or appreciated marketable securities to a trust during your lifetime or via your will. If you fund with appreciated securities, you may avoid the payment of capital gains taxes on the appreciation. Since the trust is tax-exempt, it will not have to pay capital gains taxes on the appreciation when it sells. You may designate yourself and another individual to receive income for your life(s) and, at the conclusion of the income payments, the remainder of the trust principal will be paid to the Prince of Peace Abbey. The Charitable Remainder Trust is a flexible instrument that combines charitable giving with personal financial planning and generally requires an attorney who is familiar with this type of arrangement and, possibly, the services of a trustee.

A Charitable Remainder Annuity Trust may be attractive if you like the security of receiving a fixed dollar amount that does not change throughout the term of the trust. You may not make subsequent additions to this type of trust but you may create additional Charitable Remainder Annuity Trusts.

The Charitable Remainder Unitrust may be more appealing if you prefer to receive a fixed percentage of the annual value of the principal. Subsequent additions may be made to your Charitable Remainder Unitrust and the investment strategy may be modified to meet your changing financial needs.

Retained Life Estates

One way of giving a gift and keeping it is through a life estate. This is an attractive option for people who would like to donate their residence to charity yet remain in it during their lifetimes. A Retained Life Estate allows a donor to give a personal residence to the Abbey and live in it for life. The residence may be a vacation home and need not be the donor's personal residence. While living in the residence under the terms of this agreement, the donor continues to be responsible for all maintenance and routine expenses, including taxes and insurance. When the agreement ends, the Abbey is free to use the property or the proceeds from the sale of it. By transferring the property currently, rather than waiting until death, and retaining a life estate, the donor retains the benefits of the property while obtaining a current charitable income tax deduction. The property also passes free of federal estate tax. If the donor vacates the property prior to death, the property is rented and the income passes to the donor.