Did you know that $250 million of senior owned life insurance lapses each year? So, during every 9-inning major league baseball game with an average time of 2 ½ hours, $71,350.00 of life insurance will lapse without paying a death benefit to anyone. Well it’s time for your charity and its donor pool to PLAY BALL in the $21 trillion life insurance asset class. You can hit a grand slam for your charity and your potential donors by repurposing unwanted life insurance for the benefit of charities that support causes that cure disease, educate the underserved, help veterans in need of medical and financial assistance, support religious institutions, protect the environment and so much more.
What can you do to benefit your charitable organization and help your donors achieve their philanthropic ideals? First, you head out to the pitcher’s mound to talk with your donor and find out if they have a life insurance policy they no longer need, want or can afford?
Next, you make the PITCH: “Mr. or Ms. Donor did you know that you can use that life insurance policy to benefit your favorite charitable cause, and potentially get a significant income tax deduction?”
There are many ways for a donor to support their favorite charity. One of the best ways is for the donor to donate their life insurance policy to Insuring A Better World Fund which is a 501(c)(3) non-profit that accepts charitable donations of life insurance for the benefit of other charities. The vast majority of charities are either unaware of the potential benefits of donations of life insurance, or don’t have the staff or expertise to either solicit those donations or administer the policies once they are donated. That’s where Insuring A Better World Fund comes out of the bullpen and takes the mound in RELIEF.
Insuring A Better World Fund’s founders have well over 75 years of combined experience in the life insurance industry. It occurred to them that lapsing life insurance policies are valuable assets that shouldn’t go to waste, but instead could be used to support a huge number of worthy charitable causes. Insuring A Better World Fund accepts donations of life insurance policies from seniors who are the donors of the policies. Those donors select a charity of their choice that they want to receive the death benefits. Insuring A Better World Fund pools the donated policy with other donated policies and pays all of the premium and other costs to keep the policies in force until they mature.
Once there is a sufficient amount of policies that have matured, Insuring A Better World Fund distributes the net death benefit proceeds to all the charities in the pool (called a vintage) on a pro-rata basis. This means that each individual charity that had a donor select it as the charity of their choice no longer has to wait for their own donor to pass away. Instead, the charity will receive its pro rata share of distributions from the time the first distribution is made until the last distribution is made from the vintage.
Life insurance can also be donated simply by naming the charity as the beneficiary of the policy. The problem with a beneficiary designation is there is no way to ensure that the donor or the charity will make all the premium payments needed to keep the policy in force through maturity. If the policy lapses, the charity gets nothing. If your charity already has a portfolio of life insurance policies, we can evaluate them to see if they are eligible for donation to Insuring A Better World Fund, and if so, Insuring A Better World Fund will take over the obligation to pay the premium and administer the policies.
In honor of the start of the 2024 baseball season, Insuring A Better World Fund is not going to keep its bat on its shoulder in hopes for a walk. Instead, we are going to swing for the fences by making a charitable donation of our own to the MLB-MLBPA Youth Development Foundation.
MLB-MLBPA Youth Development Foundation (YDF) is a joint initiative by Major League Baseball and the Players Association to support efforts that focus on improving the caliber, effectiveness and availability of amateur baseball and softball programs across the United States and internationally. From local-based programs to the Hank Aaron Invitational and HBCU Swingman Classic, the foundation helps make youth baseball and softball more accessible – creating economic opportunities, strengthening communities, and building character – on and off the field. Website: www.baseballydf.com
If you want to learn more about donations of life insurance or have policies that you want Insuring A Better World Fund to evaluate, please contact us at (312) 819-0790; or ds@iabwf.org.