Charitable Remainder Trusts

A charitable remainder trust (CRT) is a gift plan that allows you to transfer money or property to the Church while retaining income for you and your family.

To establish a charitable remainder trust, you transfer assets to a trust that provides for the distribution of income to you or others for life or a stated term of not more than 20 years. At the end of the trust term, the trust distributes the "remainder" of the trust property to the Church through your parish, the Archdiocese of Detroit Endowment Foundation, Sacred Heart Major Seminary, another Church institution or to your favorite charity. 

Specific rules in the tax law govern CRTs. These rules provide for specific rates of income distribution from the trust and require that the present value of the remainder interest distributable to charity be at least 10 percent of the trust value when you transfer property to the trust. 

There are two forms of CRT: a charitable remainder annuity trust (CRAT) and a charitable remainder unitrust (CRUT).

 The material presented on these pages is for your general information on stewardship, estate planning and charitable giving, and is not intended as legal advice. You should consult your attorney and tax and financial advisors for specific transactions of the points illustrated here.