Celebrate tomorrow…today!
The Encore Society is a group of friends who have committed to make legacy gifts to South Shore Conservatory (SSC) to sustain its mission to provide access to arts education and performance for the South Shore community of all ages, backgrounds, and abilities. By sharing their plans, donors help ensure the growth and sustainability of SSC.
Gifts in your Will
A gift in your will 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 SSC as part of your estate plans.
Beneficiary Designations
A beneficiary designation gift is a simple and affordable way to make a gift to support SSC. You can designate us as a beneficiary of a retirement, investment, or bank account or a life insurance policy.
Other Ways to Give
Other giving mechanisms include Charitable Remainder Trusts, Charitable Lead Trusts, and Appreciated Real Estate. Your attorney can help advise the best way to make these types of commitments.
With a completed enrollment form, certified commitments for future gifts from donors over the age of 80 will be celebrated, today, as part of the Comprehensive Campaign.
SSC recommends reviewing any planned giving with your attorney or financial advisor.
Contact our Development Team!
Bequests are...
Affordable
Making a bequest won’t reduce your current income or the assets that you rely on today for your financial security. Bequests are made from your “capital assets” that remain after they have finished serving you during your lifetime. Those capital assets might include:
| * Life insurance proceeds * Savings, stocks and bonds * An IRA or 401-K * The value in a home or other real estate * Interest in a family business |
People who may feel limited in their ability to support the Conservatory during their lifetimes often find a bequest is an ideal way to make a more significant expression of their feelings for the Conservatory and the contribution it makes to the people of our community.
Easy to do
It can be as simple as including a statement like this in your will:
| “ I give the sum of $XXX to the South Shore Conservatory of Music, Inc., of Hingham, MA, such sum to be added to the Conservatory’s unrestricted endowment, the income from such gift to be used by the Conservatory to support its programs.” |
Alternatively, you may be more comfortable with a form of bequest that provides
“the lesser of $XXX or YY% of my residual estate.”
Enduring
A bequest gives you the satisfaction of leaving a personal legacy – knowing that your gift will be a lasting statement of your belief in the Conservatory, and will benefit many future generations to come.
Tax-wise
Charitable bequests to qualified organizations like the Conservatory are fully deductible from your taxable estate.
Revocable
Remember, you can revise your will at any time in the event of unexpected changes in your life circumstances.
And…You will be eligible for The Encore Society
Recently a group of dedicated Conservatory friends came together to found The Encore Society to encourage our donors to assure that their affection, appreciation, and support for the work of the Conservatory will continue in perpetuity, by remembering the Conservatory in their wills and estate plans.
Won’t you please consider following their forward-thinking example by making a provision in your will that makes it possible for the support you provide each year during your lifetime to endure in perpetual “encore” annual gifts from you?
To learn more about becoming an Encore Society member, please call 781-934-2731 x23.
Gifts from your IRA, 401-K, or other retirement plan
Save taxes by making a current gift from your retirement account
In recent years, the IRS has permitted charitable gifts to be made from otherwise taxable IRA and other retirement plan distributions, provided the donor has reached age 70 ½, and that the distribution is made directly from the fund custodian to the charitable organization.
Please check with your tax advisor for current regulations.
Make a bequest to avoid double taxation on retirement plan assets in your estate
Any assets that remain after your lifetime in most retirement accounts like conventional IRAs and 401-K plans are currently subject to double taxation, first as ordinary income, and then as part of your taxable estate.
You can avoid this tax exposure – and obtain a further tax deduction – by naming the Conservatory in your will as a beneficiary of the remainder of your retirement plan assets. Making a bequest in this manner offers a number of additional advantages.
Enduring
A bequest gives you the satisfaction of leaving a personal legacy – knowing that your gift will be a lasting statement of your belief in the Conservatory, and will benefit many future generations to come.
Revocable
Remember, you can revise your will at any time in the event of unexpected changes in your life circumstances.
And…You will be eligible for The Encore Society
Recently a group of dedicated Conservatory friends came together to found The Encore Society to encourage our donors to assure that their affection, appreciation, and support for the work of the Conservatory will continue in perpetuity, by remembering the Conservatory in their wills and estate plans.
Won’t you please consider following their forward-thinking example by making a provision in your will that makes it possible for the support you provide each year during your lifetime to endure in perpetual “encore” annual gifts from you?
To learn more about becoming an Encore Society member, please call 781-934-2731 x23.
Gifts of Real Estate
The Conservatory can accept gifts of real property that is no longer needed, allowing you to generate an income tax deduction and reduce or eliminate capital gains tax. Alternatively,
You can make a gift of your residence, but have lifetime use of it.
You may transfer ownership of your personal residence to the Conservatory now, but retain what is called “a Life Estate”, entitling you to continue to live there for your lifetime. At the same time, you can also receive a significant tax benefit in the year of the gift.
To learn more, please call 781-934-2731 x23.
Gifts of Life Insurance
A gift of life insurance offers significant advantages:
You can make a potentially large gift with very low cost and significant tax benefit
If you change the ownership of a no longer needed life insurance policy to the Conservatory you can receive a current income tax deduction – and potential further deductions in the future through gifts to pay the policy premium.
To learn more, please call 781-934-2731 x23.
Charitable Trusts
There is an array of charitable trust arrangements which can offer important income and estate tax advantages. Among these are:
A Charitable Remainder Trust combines annual income for you, and a bequest to the Conservatory
Your gift is made to a trust created to provide you with annual income, and convey the principal of the trust to the Conservatory after your lifetime. There is a tax benefit, available in the year of the gift, that depends upon your age. Additional tax benefits may be available if the trust is funded with appreciated property.
Charitable Lead Trusts provide current income to the Conservatory, but preserve the trust assets for your family
You can fund a trust created to provide the Conservatory an annual income for a period of years, and to pass the trust principal to your heirs. Significant estate and gift tax benefits are available.
To learn more, please call 781-934-2731 x23.
Dorothy Palmer - "I Want It To Never End"
On April 11, 2012, Dorothy Palmer, generous supporter and former Trustee, spoke about her forty-year involvement with the Conservatory and why it is so important to her to perpetuate her support as a member of the Encore Society.
SSC: Dorothy, you’re one of the pioneers. How did you come to be engaged with South Shore Conservatory?
D: I have always been interested in music. My father was a musician and we always had a family orchestra – Daddy played clarinet and sax, my sister Phyllis and I both played violin, my sister Virginia played piano, my mother sang and it was wonderful. That is the deep, deep groundwork that happened long before the Conservatory happened. But this is not about me, it’s about the Conservatory.
SSC: The Conservatory is the story of many individuals.
D: Yes, it truly is. We moved to 93 Main Street, which was right next door to where the New England Conservatory had started a small satellite school and my children took lessons from the time they were four years old. I was on the board of NEC at the time and so I had mixed emotions when we decided to start an independent music school, but we really wanted to have our very own Conservatory.
SSC: And why was that important to you – to have your very own Conservatory?
D: Because music transcends everything, as you know. A group of us – Mr. Jones from Maine, Jane Carr, Phyllis, several of us - got together at my home and we decided to interview someone who could carry us into our wonderful new time for music. We found Jim Simpson, who had great, great potential - Jim was a wonderful trumpet player.
SSC: And this, of course, is Jim Simpson, who was the first Executive Director of the Conservatory.
D: That’s right and he was the visionary who helped us.
SSC: Well, it’s fitting that we are currently sitting in the Simpson Building.
D: Yes, it is indeed.
SSC: And how was this financed – obviously the Conservatory today is a substantial organization but back in the beginning…sometimes, when I’m thinking about the Conservatory, I think of those old movies with Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney when they decide they’re going to have a play and they just make it happen. It sounds as if that’s what you and your sister and Mr. Jones and Jane and Alan Carr did.
D: We did.
SSC: And how did you finance it? It wasn’t free…
D: Well, the board was very generous. We had to be if it was to be a reality and it was that generosity that made it happen. We were blessed.
SSC: Now you mentioned you have two sons, Robert and Nicholas. Has either of them stayed in music – either as an avocation or a profession?
D: Well, Robert is a great player of percussion. In fact he’s on some of the posters that are still here. I have his drum set at home and when he visits he’s down there playing. And Nicholas, of course, from the time he was 18 months – my sister would visit and she always brought a conductor’s baton and classical records. He would play the records and conduct. He always knew that he wanted to be a musician and he said, “I’ve got to be a conductor.” And he did go into the profession and is a fine symphony conductor today.
SSC: And you stayed engaged in your music as well?
D: Oh, yes. I play a little Mozart every morning. I play and sing – I love to sing.
SSC: Talk to me, if you will, about your current engagement with the Conservatory.
D: Well, my current engagement is sheer magic. I love every aspect of the Conservatory. I adore Kathy, our President. She is just the most wonderful, musical person, filled with light, who has given all of the students and the Board a new lease – and that is the beauty of being involved. I love it.
SSC: And as I understand it, one of the things we want to touch on today in this interview is the spectrum of your own and yournfamily’s support of the Conservatory. I know that you’re a member of the Encore Society, which is our planned giving society. Can you speak to why you chose to remember South Shore Conservatory as part of your personal financial estate plan?
D: Because I want it to never end. And whatever I can do financially – and certainly spiritually –whatever way I can, I’m going to remain involved.
SSC: Well, that is heartening. I also have been involved with the Conservatory since I was a young parent with children in lessons here and now my grandchildren are here. So I certainly share your affinity for the Conservatory as a community school for the arts and the difference it can make in people’s lives. And the fact is, for us to do the work we do requires financial resources, human resources, people of vision such as yourself. For your presence here today and your 40 plus years of commitment to the Conservatory, I say thank you. What you have done has been transformational for us and the fact that you would remember us as part of your financial plan so that it never ends gives the rest of us great confidence in the future. Thank you.
D: Thank you so much. It’s been a pleasure. God bless you.
Mary and Jerry Steinke - "Perpetuating the benefits of yoga"
The future looks bright thanks to Mary and Jerry Steinke. They have included SSC in their estate plans to provide support for the Conservatory's growing Creative Arts Therapies initiatives.
Mary and Jerry's granddaughter, Macy, has Down Syndrome and has been practicing yoga with Gita Brown, a Board Certified Music Therapist who is the Yoga Chair for SSC's Creative Arts Therapy Department.
Macy and Gita have been practicing yoga together for three years. Mary marvels at the benefits, "increased focus, self-discipline, physical strength and joy have forever changed Macy's life." So that other children can benefit from such therapy, Mary and Jerry have made a legacy gift by including SSC in their estate plans.
Their gift will support Creative Arts Therapies. Mary recently joined SSC's Board of Trustees. Mary and Jerry have been longtime supporters of the Conservatory and the Duxbury Music Festival. SSC is especially pleased to welcome Mary and Jerry Steinke to the Encore Society, which recognizes and celebrates people who have included the Conservatory in their estate plans.
Mary Ellen and Peter Lawrence - Newest Members
The Conservatory is pleased to welcome Mary Ellen and Peter Lawrence to the Encore Society, which was launched in 2008 to recognize people who have included the Conservatory in their estate plans.
The Lawrences have chosen to make a planned gift to provide endowed support for the Conservatory's growing outreach initiatives. "Providing access to education and the arts through outreach programs is very dear to our hearts," Peter commented. "By providing an endowed Outreach Fund we hope these life-changing access experiences will allow the Conservatory to continue their mission for future generations."