Legacy Society

Designate Starlight in your will or trust.
Adding Starlight as a beneficiary to an existing will or trust is easy. Your bequest can be used to gift a dollar amount or a percentage of your estate to Starlight.

Sample bequest language you can send to your estate planning attorneys is below:
"I give to Starlight Theatre, a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization currently located at 4600 Starlight Road Kansas City, MO 64132, or its successor thereto, ______________ [written amount or percentage of the estate or description of property] for its unrestricted use and purpose."

Make Starlight a full or partial beneficiary in your retirement plan.
It only takes a few minutes to include Starlight in your IRA. Simply designate a specific dollar amount or a percentage of your retirement savings to Starlight.

Oftentimes, naming charities as beneficiaries of your IRA or 401(k) can be a simple process where you don’t even have to pay for an attorney.

Most people like this option because it ensures that the entirety of your gift can go to the charity of your choice, since charities do not pay income tax, as well as your children, grandchildren or a loved one.

Otherwise, if your loved ones inherit your tax-deferred IRA or 401(k), they would be required to pay income taxes on the distribution of the assets.

Gift all or part of your life insurance policy to Starlight.
Life insurance can be a convenient and easy asset to give. Name Starlight as a full or partial beneficiary of your life insurance policy. You may also be able to give Starlight your life insurance policy outright and claim a deduction now.

Beneficiary designations can often be edited without additional legal fees and are easy to set up.

Designate Starlight as a beneficiary of your donor-advised fund.
Work with a financial institution or community foundation to invest your funds so they grow over time and go to charities that you care about.

Donor Advised Funds (DAF) have become an increasing popular giving vehicle over the past few years, and are easy to get established. Here is what you need to know:

• It takes as little as $5,000 to create your DAF.
• Common gifts like cash, stock and real estate are tax-deductible when contributed to your Donor Advised Fund.
• You can give individuals like your children, grandchildren or another loved the opportunity to continue using your DAF, thus ensuring that charitable giving will continue long after you’re gone.

Receive reliable payments from sizeable estates.
A charitable remainder trust provides you or another individual that you name with income each year during your lifetime or for a period not exceeding 20 years from assets you give to your trust. Tax benefits and the option for income may be offered through this type of gift.

Protect Your Assets.
Support Starlight without giving up the assets that you'd like your family to receive in the future with a charitable lead trust donation. Payments can be made through a charitable lead annuity trust (a fixed amount is paid to Starlight each year) or a charitable lead unitrust (a variable amount is paid to Starlight each year).

Give Your Real Estate to Starlight.
Gifts of real estate not only helps Starlight continue our work for years down the road, it also helps you. Appreciated property held longer than one year grants you a federal income tax charitable deduction. In addition, you no longer need to maintain the property or deal with property tax and insurance.

Gifts of real estate can be given in the following ways:

• Outright gift
• Donor advised fund
• Retained life estate
• Will or living trust
• Memorial or endowment gift
• Charitable remainder unitrust
• Charitable lead trust
• Deferred charitable gift annuity
• Bargain sale