Giving back to your community through your estate plans can be a deeply meaningful experience. After taking care of your loved ones, donating a portion of your estate to Peterborough Regional Health Centre (PRHC) Foundation through a will or a life insurance policy can ensure your assets support world-class patient care at your hospital for generations to come.
One of many ways to support the PRHC Foundation, legacy giving — creating gifts during your lifetime to be made through your estate — may help reduce your estate tax burden and allow you to pass on your values, ideals and a sense of purpose, creating lasting change, while not impacting your income today.
“For some donors, gifts made through their will or through life insurance allow them to make a gift of a lifetime, having a transformational impact on the future of healthcare,” says PRHC Foundation President and CEO Lesley Heighway. “There are a number of ways to make a legacy gift, and each one supports world-class care in the community.”
Financial advisor Joe Curry, a father of two young children and a Peterborough business owner, decided to make a significant impact on healthcare in his community by donating a life insurance policy to the PRHC Foundation.
Having grown up in Havelock, Joe has spent his lifetime seeing the regional hospital as an “important fixture in the community” and recognizes the impact it has had on the growing population of 600,000 people it serves. Since 2013, his wife Ashley has been a labour and delivery nurse at the hospital, where their two young sons have since been born. Since then, Joe has repeatedly gone back when his sons have needed emergency care, for his own surgeries, stitches and broken limbs, and to visit countless friends and family.
“It’s important to have the regional health centre where we can get different types of treatments without having to go far from home,” he says. “Obviously there have been happy moments there, like the birth of my kids and my nieces and nephews, but also the serious ones.”
He recalls a particularly scary time when a friend in his 40s had a sudden heart attack while they were playing hockey together in Norwood.
“The cardiac team was ready by the time he got to the hospital in the ambulance, and they were able to make sure there was no serious damage and now he’s in good shape,” Joe recalls. “The fact he didn’t have to go all the way to Durham or the GTA to get that care makes a huge difference. It’s really important because it could be the difference between life or death in some instances.”
Given the important role the hospital has played in their lives, Joe and Ashley knew they wanted to include a donation to the PRHC Foundation when making their estate plans. After considering the many different options, they decided to make a gift of life insurance. After purchasing a policy, they immediately donated it to the PRHC Foundation.
The couple pays the regular policy premium but, since it’s a donation, they receive a tax-deductible charitable donation receipt for the annual premium they pay. Over the course of 20 years, they will pay approximately $100,000 in premiums but, when the policy is paid out after they pass on, the PRHC Foundation will receive $1 million.
“Giving through life insurance is a much more affordable way for us today to have a meaningful impact in the future,” Joe says, adding that being able to deduct the policy premiums from their taxes “comes close to cutting the cost of the policy in half,” down to less than $60,000.
Policies that donors may have taken out during their lifetimes to protect their family and their business interests may be eligible for donation, or the individual may wish to assign the PRHC Foundation as the beneficiary of their policy and to retain ownership to allow for flexibility should their circumstances change.
“Donations of every type and size make an impact and we’re grateful for every single one,” says Heighway. “We know that what’s right for one donor may be different from what’s a good fit for someone else.”
“One of our goals for the Foundation’s current Campaign for PRHC is to help our family, friends and neighbours think about how they give. Joe is helping us do that and inspiring others. For those who can, a gift of life insurance is an easy and economical way to make a lasting and significant legacy gift. Although it won’t be received by the Foundation soon, it will provide sustainable funds to be invested in patient care in the future.”
As president of Matthews & Associates, a Peterborough financial planning firm that specializes in retirement planning, Joe understands the importance of evaluating a client’s financial circumstances when thinking about how to make their giving more meaningful.
“There are many different ways to give, but legacy giving allows people to make more significant gifts even if they don’t have the money right now,” he says. “It’s good to just give funds today if you can, but with a little bit of planning, you might be able to give even more in future.”
A volunteer for the PRHC Foundation, Joe is also chair of the PRHC Foundation Allied Professional Advisory Council where he and a group of other planning professionals — including lawyers, accountants, and financial advisors — promote strategic philanthropy and have conversations with clients about charitable giving through estate planning.
“When people are thinking about giving to charity, it’s because they’re passionate about an organization that has touched their lives, or they had a positive experience or a reason to do so,” he says. “We tell people we want you to give for those reasons, but you should still incorporate charitable giving into your financial and estate planning because, if you give intentionally, it will allow you to make a bigger gift and have a greater impact at the end of the day.”
“We really appreciate the commitment Joe and Ashley have made to PRHC and the PRHC Foundation,” says Heighway. “They’re making an impact in so many ways — through their work, their volunteer efforts, their donations, and their willingness to share their donor story. Not only is that wonderful generosity helping support care for the people they know and love now, but they’ve planned to make a difference in the care provided to the next generation of their loved ones.”
Life insurance gifts are one of many ways donors can choose to support the PRHC Foundation. Those who are in the process of estate planning might alternatively choose to name the PRHC Foundation as the beneficiary of their RRSP or RRIF, leave a gift in their will, or create or contribute to an endowment fund for the PRHC Foundation. In all cases, leaving a legacy gift helps ensure PRHC can continue to provide world-class care close to home.
“I don’t think a lot of people know that PRHC is not just a local community hospital anymore,” Joe says. “A lot of fundraising has been done to make sure we can get care close to home for a lot of areas that never would have been possible in the past. That’s just going to continue to expand. We are so lucky to live in a community that has a regional acute care hospital like PRHC.”
For more information on how to create a charitable gift through life insurance or through your estate plans, visit prhcfoundation.ca/ways-to-give/create-a-lasting-impact/ or call 705-876-5000.
This branded editorial was created in partnership with the Peterborough Regional Health Centre Foundation. If your organization or business is interested in a branded editorial, contact us.
