Leaving a Bequest
A bequest is one of the most common types of planned gifts. You can specify your bequest to POST as a particular dollar amount, a percentage of your estate, the residue of your estate or a specific asset such as real estate or securities. Bequests will be distributed after all debts, taxes and expenses of your estate have been paid.
When your attorney draws up your will or living trust, POST should be designated as:
Peninsula Open Space Trust, a California non-profit public benefit corporation, with Business Address of 222 High Street, Palo Alto, CA 94301
POST's taxpayer identification number is: 94-2392007
POST was incorporated on 2/10/1977.
We suggest you specify that your bequest be "used in such a manner as the Board of Directors of Peninsula Open Space Trust shall, in its discretion, determine." If you prefer to restrict your bequest to a particular program, POST is pleased to work with you to ensure that your wishes will be met.
Should you choose to make POST a beneficiary of your estate plans, please let us know your intentions. If you would like, you can provide POST with a copy of the relevant portion of your will or living trust so we can ensure that your wishes are carried out at the appropriate time. This information will, of course, be kept strictly confidential.
Claudia Newbold
Many people put off estate planning until the last possible moment, yet making a plan before the need is acute has advantages. Just ask Claudia Newbold, POST volunteer and donor since 2004.
Estate planning should be done at a time in people’s lives when they are in good health, says Claudia, a resident of Menlo Park. For Claudia and her late husband, Howard Schopman, the process began in 2001, as she was preparing to retire as vice president in charge of taxes for McKesson Corporation.
“Here we were, at a point where we had spent most of our lives accumulating wealth. It was time to give some thought to where it might go after our needs were met,” says Newbold. “In our case we had no children, so after designating amounts for relatives, friends and other charities, we agreed on giving what remained to POST. Howard died in 2005, but we had already chosen POST and saving land. We so enjoyed the open lands around us, and we knew we couldn’t enjoy them but for the generosity of others in the past.”
Claudia is a POST Open Space Guardian and Conservation Easement Monitor. Naming POST in her estate plans further ensures continuation of our land-saving work.
“I had the advantage of familiarity with tax law, but that wasn’t the key to our satisfaction with the process,” she says. “We concentrated on doing something meaningful and lasting, and ultimately we felt good knowing our values were reflected in our estate plan.”
For more information about bequests, please contact Adelaide Roberts, Director of Planned Giving, at (650) 854-7696 or aroberts@openspacetrust.org.