Maria: We needed a charitable deduction to avoid paying the taxes we owed from the sale of our second home. While Luis invested his energies at work, I spent years volunteering with our favorite charity and wanted to find a way to make a special gift to help further its work this year.

Luis: Maria and I were both in good health, and I still enjoyed working. We were living comfortably on my current salary but were looking for ways to plan for retirement. I wasn't quite certain when I would retire, so we wanted to find an option that would let me be flexible with my retirement date.

Maria: A gift planner from our favorite charity told us that a flexible deferred gift annuity would help us meet our goals. Instead of selling our appreciated stock and paying high capital gains tax, we could give it to them and receive an immediate charitable tax deduction to offset our current tax bill. The flexible deferred gift annuity would permit us to elect to begin taking payments for life when Luis was ready to retire.

Luis: We decided to set up the flexible deferred gift annuity. We received a charitable tax deduction in the year that the gift was made and experienced immediate tax savings. When I am ready to retire, we will contact our favorite charity to begin payments, giving me the flexibility to continue working as long as I would like. In addition, the flexible deferred gift annuity makes it possible for us to receive a large portion of each payment tax-free, and this is an attractive benefit!