Planned Giving Home

Welcome to The LCMS Foundation Gift Planning Homepage

Your district Gift Planning Counselor is a fellow Lutheran who shares your love for the Lord and understands your desire to help spread the Gospel. Your counselor is an experienced professional who can assist you with the Transfer of Blessings to family, heirs, and ministry. When you ask for the counselor's assistance you can expect:

     · Convenient meeting time and place
     · No charge for your counselor's services
     · Counseling on organizing an estate Lifetime Plan for Giving
     · Complete confidentiality

Counselors share a variety of choices that you may have in developing gift plans, such as Christian preambles, gift annuities and donor-advised funds. They will also give a general overview of other planning techniques like wills, living trusts, and credit shelter trusts.

Having a completed Gift Plan gives you peace of mind knowing that your wishes for the gifts God has entrusted to you are fulfilled.

New!!! Click here to locate and contact a counselor on our interactive map.

For Congregations and Ministry Organizations

The LCMS Foundation gift planning counselors also assist congregations and ministry organizations with establishing, promoting, growing, and managing ministry endowment funds.

Click here to download our free Ministry Endowment Funding booklet (Adobe Acrobat required).

LCMS Foundation Donor Stories

Many of the stories feature actual LCMS donor stories, while other stories are fictional to be used for illustrative purposes only.

Please contact The LCMS Foundation or your gift planning counselor for more information.

The Retirement Unitrust
Mary Friendly grew up on a farm. When her parents passed away, she inherited the farm. When Mary was growing up, the farm was out in the country. The city now has grown until the farm is now within the city limits. Several developers would like to build homes on the farmland. More on The Retirement Unitrust >>.

Part Gift and Part Sale
Sue and Jim Wilson bought their first home many years ago. As they were landscaping in the yard, painting and fixing up that home, Jim was impressed with the home improvement store. More on Part Gift and Part Sale >>.

Current Gifts
As is the case with many families, there are times each year when Jim and Sharon focus their attention on gift giving. For years, they have created a gift list that includes family members, friends and loved ones. More on Current Gifts >>.

Deferred Gift Annuity
Several years ago Larry and Allison invested $30,000 in what they believed to be an attractive stock. It turned out to be a very wise decision, because the value of the stock increased to $100,000 a few years later. More on Deferred Gift Annuity >>.

Steps to Wise Giving

There are several steps to help you make wise and prudent gifts. These pages are here to help you learn how gift planning ideas can be of personal benefit. Let us suggest a few steps that would help you in that process.

Terry Gerdts
Senior Vice President of Gift Planning Services

Thanks very much for visiting us! I would be very pleased to help you. Simply click here to email me at your convenience.

Professional Advisors

We also have a complete tax update service for CPAs, attorneys, CLUs, CFPs, ChFCs, trust officers and other professional friends. The GiftLaw services are made available to all advisors as a free service. We also are always available to assist in helping you provide clients with clear and understandable gift illustrations. If you would like assistance with a gift illustration, please contact Gift.Processing@lcms.org.

If you are a professional advisor, you may take the following steps on this site.

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