Helping your neighbor or your community in times of need is a fundamental Jewish belief. This same moral commitment to supporting the common good, a deeply held tenent of American society, mirrors Jewish philosophy.

As a public foundation to help individuals from every walk of life in their charitable giving, the Jewish Community Foundation of Southern Arizona can:

• Help you and your family develop a legacy plan that best reflects your ideals and circumstances. Many such plans offer substantial tax benefits.
• Assure that your desires and instructions are faithfully and professionally fulfilled.

Whatever your goal—memorializing or honoring a loved one, supporting the causes that touched your life, creating a gift that lives after you—the Jewish Community Foundation can help. And, with the proper planning, you can indeed help yourself—by helping others.

What are the elements of a personalized legacy plan? Vision and Funding.These two things intersect in a way ideally matched to your financial situation and community orientation.

The vision track includes your charitable beneficiaries, a distribution plan, special contingencies, and a mechanism for change. On the funding track, you address how you will finance this vision: which assets and vehicles provide the most effective means to achieve the desired results at the least cost.

Legacy giving can be during life or after death. The beneficiary may be a specific institution to which you want to direct funds or unfilled community need. Several instruments are available to involve your children in the process.

The best way to envision how this works is the image of a central control panel. This imaginary box receives your assets when they come in (for example, benefits from an insurance policy or simple bequest) and directs the terms of the distributions going out (such as your favorite synagogue or a perpetual donation to the Federation campaign in Israel). To custom design your legacy plan, you meet with the Foundation representatives, with all of their expertise and support at your disposal. It is also reassuring to know that flexibility can be built into your agreement to allow you to alter your beneficiary designations at a future time. These adjustments can be made without the need to amend your will or trust, eliminating expensive professional fees.

Legacy planning is the ultimate empowerment. It is a special union of your values and valuables. You can take the pursuits of the work place, the material in your life, and transform them into deeds that transform the world. When the work of your heart is complete, you can then enjoy the peace that brings, assure that nothing in your estate is wasted, that no one is left out and that every dream is fulfilled.