Life Insurance

Gifts of Life Insurance Death Benefits

Once a life insurance policy has served its original objective, you might consider giving it a new life with a charitable purpose. Naming St. Theresa Catholic Church and School as beneficiary while retaining ownership of the policy is the easiest way to use life insurance to make a future gift to us. Here are your two main options:

• Name St. Theresa Catholic Church and School, your policy’s sole or partial beneficiary.
• You can name us as the contingent beneficiary, in which case we receive the death benefits only if your primary beneficiary dies before you do.

The life insurance benefits left to an individual can be subject to estate taxes. Still, when you change the beneficiary to a charitable entity such as ours, the benefits are tax-free.
Naming us the beneficiary of your life insurance policy provides you the satisfaction of making a very generous donation and leveraging the total value of your policy. Alternatively, when a life insurance beneficiary is not a qualified charity, the amount your loved ones receive in the end could be less due to estate taxes. But when you name St. Theresa Catholic Church and School as beneficiary, we receive the total amount, and estate taxes are eliminated. (With this arrangement, you will not receive a charitable income tax benefit during your lifetime because you are not giving away the policy ownership. Your estate, however, will receive an estate tax charitable deduction.)

We Can Help 

If you need help with any technical questions regarding a planned gift, contact Johanna Bransford at 713-869-3783 or [email protected]. To make a planned gift, please contact [email protected] to schedule a phone call or appointment with Fr. Vincent.