Bequests

Download a PDF brochure on Bequests.

Bequests

Giving Through Your Will or Living Trust

Every year the Law School is grateful to receive bequests from the estates of our alumni and friends. These gifts make a tremendous difference to the Law School’s academic mission, and our future depends on them. Providing future support through a bequest is a wonderful way to leave a legacy of support for the Law School’s future.

How Do I Include the Law School in My Will or Living Trust?
You may include a bequest through your will or your living trust by including specific language outlining your support for the Law School. You may designate a specific amount, specific property, or a portion of your entire estate, and you may choose how you want your bequest to be used. For example, you may designate your bequest to be applied to the Law School’s unrestricted purposes (an “unrestricted bequest”). The funds will give the Law School flexibility to meet its greatest needs at the time your bequest is realized. Or you may instead designate a specific purpose for your bequest (a “restricted bequest”). For example, your bequest may be earmarked to endow a scholarship or professorship, enhance faculty research, support loan forgiveness programs, or fund another purpose that advances the mission of the Law School. The box suggests language you might include in your will. If you have a living trust, simply modify your trust language to direct your trustee to make the desired distributions.

UNRESTRICTED BEQUEST
(For the Law School’s Unrestricted Use)

“I give to The University of Virginia Law School Foundation, a Virginia non-stock corporation located in Charlottesville, Virginia, the sum of $____________ [or property described herein] [or ____ percent (____%) of the rest of my estate] to be held and applied for the use of the University of Virginia School of Law for its general purposes.”

RESTRICTED BEQUEST
(For a Purpose You Designate)

If you want to restrict your bequest to a particular program or area at the Law School or to establish a scholarship or other endowed fund, we recommend that you ask the Law School Foundation to review your intended provision to be certain that your wishes will be carried out.

Flexibility to Meet Your Needs
When you make a bequest to benefit the Law School, you will have provided for your own legacy to impact future generations of law students. The designated amount will not be subject to estate tax in your estate, possibly reducing estate taxes that may be owed at your death. And because your estate plan is revocable, you will also retain the flexibility to change your designation later to meet changing family or personal circumstances, or to change the purposes for which you want your bequest to be used.

Please Let Us Know If You Have Included the Law School in Your Estate Plan
If you have already included the Law School Foundation in your estate plan, we are grateful. We hope that you will let us know of your intentions by completing a Statement of Intent to Provide Future Support. Sharing your plans with us will ensure that we carry out your exact wishes and will help the Law School’s long-range planning efforts. And we would be honored to have the opportunity to thank you during your lifetime for your generous intentions. Of course, informing us of your philanthropic intentions does not obligate you or your heirs to fulfill them, and you will continue to have the flexibility to adjust your plans as needed in the future.

Whom Do I Contact?
For more information about giving through your will or living trust, please contact Elizabeth Leverage ’92:
1-877-307-0158
eleverage@virginia.edu
Law School Foundation
580 Massie Road
Charlottesville, Virginia 22903-1738

The University of Virginia Law School Foundation does not provide legal or tax advice. We recommend that you seek your own legal and tax advice in connection with gift and planning matters. To ensure compliance with certain IRS requirements, we disclose to you that this communication (including any attachments) is not intended or written to be used, and cannot be used, for the purpose of avoiding tax-related penalties.