Charitable Bequests

Updated August 3, 2026. Quick answer: there are three ways to write a charitable gift into a will, and they behave very differently when the estate turns out to be worth more or less than you expected. Choosing among them is the whole decision, and most people are never offered the choice.

The three forms

• Specific. A named asset — these shares, that painting. If you no longer own it at death, the gift generally fails and the charity receives nothing.
• Pecuniary. A fixed sum. Reliable for the charity, but it does not shrink if the estate shrinks — so in a smaller-than-expected estate it takes a larger share of what is left, at the family’s expense.
• Residuary. A percentage of what remains after debts, expenses and other gifts. It scales in both directions, which is why it is usually the one that ages best.

The failure mode nobody plans for

A will written at 60 leaving a $50,000 (2026) fixed sum to charity, in an estate then worth $900,000, is leaving about six percent. If long-term care later reduces that estate to $120,000, the same clause now leaves more than forty percent — and the family absorbs the entire shortfall. Nothing went wrong administratively; the instrument simply did not scale.

A residuary percentage would have moved with the estate. That is the argument for it, and it is a stronger argument than it is usually given.

The asset to give is not neutral either

If you are leaving money to both charity and family, which pocket it comes from matters. A traditional retirement account is taxable income to a human heir and generally not to a charity, so directing the charitable share to the retirement account and the family share to other assets can leave the family measurably better off at no cost to the charity.

Leaving an IRA to charity versus heirs

Practical points

• Name the charity precisely — legal name and, ideally, its tax identification number. Similar names cause real disputes.
• Say what happens if the charity no longer exists, or the will has to be construed by a court.
• Consider whether the gift is restricted. A restriction the charity cannot practically honour creates a problem for both sides.
• A beneficiary designation is not a will. Retirement accounts and life insurance pass by their own forms, and a charitable clause in a will does not reach them.

Related: estate planning with no heirs · beneficiary designation versus will.

Honest gaps

Will drafting is state law and the terminology varies. Whether an estate owes federal estate tax at all, and how a charitable deduction interacts with it, depends on figures we have deliberately not restated here.

General information drawn from the Internal Revenue Code, Treasury regulations, IRS publications and the relevant state statutes, not legal or tax advice. Dollar figures are adjusted regularly and the state-law half differs from state to state, so check the current year and your own state before you act on a number.