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Create Your Lasting Legacy

Explore tax-wise giving strategies that empower you to support our students and programs both now and in the years to come. Discover how a planned gift can offer financial benefits for you and your loved ones while securing the university's mission for the next generation.
Plan Your Gift

Giving Home > How to Give > Bequest

Bequest

A bequest is a gift you can make to support Shenandoah University's mission in your will or living trust or with a codicil.

A bequest allows you to continue to use the property you will leave to us during your life and make a lasting impact on our work after you are gone.

Benefits of a bequest

  • Receive an estate tax charitable deduction
  • Reduce the burden of taxes on your family
  • Leave a lasting legacy to our organization

Charitable bequest video

How a bequest works

A bequest is one of the easiest gifts to make. With the help of an attorney, you can include language in your will or trust specifying a gift to be made to family, friends or Shenandoah University as part of your estate plan, or you can make a bequest using a beneficiary designation form.

Here are some of the ways to leave a bequest to Shenandoah University

  • Include a bequest to Shenandoah University in your will or revocable trust
  • Designate Shenandoah University as a full, partial or contingent beneficiary of your retirement account (IRA, 401(k), 403(b) or pension)
  • Name Shenandoah University as a beneficiary of your life insurance policy

A bequest may be made in several ways

  • Specific Bequest - A specific bequest involves making a gift of a specific asset such as real estate, a car, other property or a gift for a specific dollar amount. For example, you may wish to leave your home or $10,000 to Shenandoah University.
  • Percentage Bequest - Another kind of bequest involves leaving a specific percentage of your overall estate to our organization. For example, you may wish to leave 10% of your estate to Shenandoah University.
  • Residual Bequest - A residual bequest is made from the balance of an estate after the will or trust has given away each of the specific bequests. A common residual bequest involves leaving a percentage of the residue of the estate to our organization. For example, you may wish to leave 30% of the residue of your estate to Shenandoah University.

Review sample bequest language

Contact Us

If you have any questions about leaving a bequest to us, please contact us. We would be happy to assist you.

If you have been so generous as to include a bequest to Shenandoah University as part of your estate plan, please take the time to let us know. We would like to recognize you and your family for your generosity.