Christian Estate Planning: Stewardship, Legacy, and Giving Well

Why estate planning is a stewardship act

Scripture treats wealth as entrusted, not owned. Proverbs 13:22 says "a good man leaves an inheritance for his children's children," acknowledging that provision across generations reflects faithful management. First Timothy 5:8 frames care for your household as a basic responsibility. But Luke 12:20 — "you fool, this night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?" — is a reminder that an unplanned estate is not faithfulness deferred; it is faithfulness refused.

Dying without a will or beneficiary designations does not preserve your values — it hands them over to state intestate succession laws that have nothing to do with them. Every Christian with a spouse, children, or any meaningful assets should have an estate plan. The question is not whether to plan, but how to plan intentionally.

The four documents every Christian household needs

Estate planning starts with four foundational documents. None of them require a large estate to be worth having.

1. Last will and testament

Your will names beneficiaries for assets that go through probate (assets not otherwise covered by beneficiary designations or joint ownership), names guardians for minor children, and appoints an executor. For Christian parents with young children, the guardian designation alone makes a will non-optional. If you die without one, a court appoints a guardian without knowing your faith convictions or community.

2. Revocable living trust

A revocable trust holds assets during your lifetime (you remain in control), then distributes them at death outside of probate — faster, private, and harder to contest than a will. For households with real estate in multiple states, a trust avoids the costly multi-state probate process. For families where a surviving spouse, elderly parent, or a child with special needs may need managed distributions rather than a lump sum, a trust provides the structure. It's not just a wealthy-family tool; it's a planning tool.

3. Durable power of attorney

Authorizes someone to act on your behalf for financial matters if you become incapacitated. Without one, a court proceeding (conservatorship or guardianship) is required to manage your finances — an expensive, time-consuming process that places decision-making with a judge, not your family. Name someone you trust and who understands your financial picture.

4. Healthcare directive (advance directive / living will)

Documents your wishes for medical care if you cannot speak for yourself, and names a healthcare proxy who can make decisions aligned with your convictions. For many Christians, this document reflects deep values about the sanctity of life, the role of intervention, and end-of-life care. Your faith community and family deserve clarity, not impossible decisions made in an ICU under pressure.

The inheritance question: how much is enough to leave your children?

Proverbs endorses leaving an inheritance. But how much, and in what form? This is a question most estate attorneys don't ask and most financial advisors frame only in terms of numbers. Faith-aligned advisors are more likely to engage the actual question.

A working framework many Christian families find useful:

• Enough to provide a head start, not a substitute for meaningful work. A child who never needs to earn a living often loses more than they gain. Enough to pay off student debt, make a house down payment, or weather an emergency — without removing the motivation to build a life — is different from leaving enough that none of it is needed.
• Enough to sustain a spouse's lifestyle without anxiety. A surviving spouse is a near-universal first priority. The question of "how much is enough for the kids" comes after "is my spouse fully provided for."
• The excess belongs to someone. If your estate grows larger than what you'd planned to leave your children, the alternative beneficiary is worth deciding intentionally — a church, a ministry, a donor-advised fund for ongoing giving. The default is not "leave it all to the kids." That's a choice you make by not deciding.

There is no universal answer. But having the conversation explicitly — ideally with your children present if they're adults — is part of faithful estate planning. Surprises in estate distributions are a leading cause of family conflict. Clarity is a gift.

The most tax-efficient move most Christians don't make: IRA to church, appreciated assets to family

This is the single highest-leverage estate planning decision for a Christian family with both an IRA and non-retirement assets, and it almost never comes up without a faith-aligned advisor who knows to ask.

The problem with leaving IRAs to children

Under the SECURE Act's 10-year rule, most non-spouse beneficiaries who inherit a traditional IRA must withdraw the entire balance and pay ordinary income tax on every dollar within 10 years of the original owner's death.¹ A $500,000 IRA left to a child in a 24% tax bracket yields that child roughly $380,000 after taxes over those ten years. The IRS got $120,000.

If the original owner was already taking required minimum distributions (RMD age 73 for those born 1951–1959, or 75 for those born 1960 or later), the inheriting child must also take annual RMDs during the 10-year window before emptying the account.¹

What changes when the beneficiary is a church

Qualified charitable organizations — your church, a Christian ministry, a donor-advised fund — are tax-exempt. They pay zero income tax on IRA distributions. A $500,000 IRA named to your church delivers the full $500,000. Not $380,000. The same dollar that a child would lose $120,000 on flows entirely to the ministry you chose.²

The paired strategy: IRA to charity, appreciated assets to family

Assets held in a taxable brokerage account — stocks, mutual funds, real estate — receive a "stepped-up basis" at death. That means the cost basis resets to the fair market value at the time of death. A child who inherits a stock you bought for $50,000 now worth $200,000 pays zero capital gains tax on that $150,000 of appreciation if they sell immediately after inheriting it.

Combined, the strategy is:

1. Name your church or ministry as beneficiary on traditional IRAs and 401(k)s — the full pre-tax amount goes to charity, tax-free.
2. Leave after-tax brokerage accounts and real estate to your children — they receive the stepped-up basis, eliminating embedded capital gains.
3. If you also want to leave cash or specific personal property to your children, leave that from other sources as well.

This is not reducing your generosity to your children — it's the same total estate distributed in a way that maximizes what reaches both the ministry and the family. A faith-aligned advisor who knows estate planning will map this out using your actual asset mix.

Giving structures at death: beyond the simple bequest

A will bequest is the simplest form of estate giving — your will says "I leave $50,000 to First Presbyterian Church." That works. But several other structures offer additional flexibility or tax efficiency depending on your situation.

Donor-advised fund with a successor advisor

A donor-advised fund (DAF) doesn't have to end at your death. Most DAF sponsors allow you to name a successor advisor — a family member, a trusted friend, or a committee — who continues recommending grants to ministries after you are gone. This lets you extend your giving values across generations. You can seed the DAF generously during your lifetime (getting the full current-year deduction), name your church and ministries as primary recipients, and name a child who shares your faith as successor so that giving continues in a disciplined, directed way.

See our DAF tax-savings calculator to model the benefit of giving appreciated stock to a DAF rather than selling first.

Charitable remainder trust (CRT)

A charitable remainder trust is an irrevocable trust where you transfer assets in (often appreciated assets), receive income for life or a set term, and the remainder goes to charity when the trust ends. There are two main forms:

• Charitable remainder annuity trust (CRAT): Pays you a fixed dollar amount each year — at least 5% of the initial trust value. Good for predictable income.
• Charitable remainder unitrust (CRUT): Pays you a fixed percentage of the trust's value each year, revalued annually. Income rises if the trust grows; falls if it declines. Good for inflation protection.

The tax benefits are meaningful: you receive an immediate charitable deduction for the present value of the remainder interest; the trust itself is tax-exempt, so appreciated assets can be sold inside the trust without capital gains tax; and the estate is reduced by the value that ultimately passes to charity.³ CRTs are more complex and have setup costs, but for a household with large appreciated real estate or concentrated stock and a genuine intent to give to ministry, they can be highly efficient.

Charitable lead trust (CLT)

The mirror image of a CRT: the charity receives income during the trust term, and your heirs receive the remainder at the end. Useful for households who want to make large gifts to ministry now while still passing assets to children later. Less commonly used but worth discussing with an estate attorney if you have a significant estate.

The 2026 estate tax landscape: what the $15M exemption means for Christian families

The One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA), signed in July 2025, permanently raised the federal estate and gift tax exemption to $15 million per individual ($30 million for married couples using portability) — up from $13.99 million in 2025.⁴ The pre-OBBBA sunset that would have dropped the exemption back to roughly $7 million in 2026 no longer happens. The $15M exemption is now permanent law.

What this means practically:

• For most Christian families, federal estate tax is not the primary planning concern. The exemption covers the vast majority of estates. Estate planning is still essential — but the driver is family provision, charitable intent, and avoiding probate, not estate tax minimization.
• For higher-net-worth families ($5M–$30M), the planning goal shifts. Rather than complex trust structures designed to shelter assets from estate tax, the conversation moves toward charitable giving strategies, legacy structuring, and what passes to whom in what form.
• State estate taxes still matter. Several states (including Massachusetts, Oregon, and Washington) have their own estate taxes with lower exemptions — sometimes as low as $1 million. If you live in one of these states or own real estate there, state-level planning matters even if federal estate tax does not.

Annual gifts: $19,000 per person in 2026

The annual gift tax exclusion for 2026 is $19,000 per recipient. You can give $19,000 to as many people as you wish — children, grandchildren, church members, anyone — without using any of your lifetime exemption and without filing a gift tax return.⁴ Married couples can gift-split, effectively giving $38,000 per recipient per year. This is a planning tool for families who want to transfer wealth during their lifetime, fund grandchildren's education, or accelerate giving without waiting until death.

Gifts paid directly to a school or medical provider for tuition or medical care are also excluded — no dollar limit, no gift tax, no impact on the annual exclusion. This "direct payment" exclusion is separate and unlimited.

Should your estate tithe?

Many Christians who tithe faithfully throughout their lives ask whether that commitment should extend to their estate. This is a matter of personal conviction, not doctrinal mandate. But there is a growing tradition of Christians who intentionally designate 10% — or more — of their estate to the church or ministry, parallel to the tithe they gave on income throughout their lives.

The mechanics are straightforward: a percentage bequest in your will ("I give 10% of my residuary estate to [church name]"), a percentage beneficiary designation on an IRA ("30% to First Baptist Church, 70% equally among my children"), or a funded donor-advised fund that continues making grants according to your instructions after death. Any of these can reflect a commitment to generosity as the final act of stewardship.

If you have been giving to multiple ministries — local church, missions organizations, Christian nonprofits — a DAF with a successor advisor is often the most flexible vehicle for continuing those relationships. You describe your giving values in a letter of instruction; the successor carries it out.

Questions to ask a faith-aligned estate planning advisor

Not all estate attorneys or financial advisors have worked through the intersection of faith and estate planning. Here are the questions that surface whether they understand your priorities:

1. "Given my asset mix — retirement accounts, brokerage, real estate, and other — which assets should go to ministry and which to family to maximize what both receive?" A good advisor will map this out for your specific situation using the IRA beneficiary and stepped-up basis logic above.
2. "How do I name my church as an IRA beneficiary?" A straightforward mechanics question. The answer should be: request a beneficiary designation form from your IRA custodian, and get your church's EIN from the church office. The advisor should help you confirm the church qualifies as a 501(c)(3).
3. "Does a charitable remainder trust make sense given my appreciated assets?" Worth exploring if you hold significant appreciated real estate or concentrated stock and have both income needs and a giving intent.
4. "Does my current estate plan reflect our values about inheritance — provision without dependency — for our children?" If the advisor can't engage this question, they may not be the right fit for a household where this matters.
5. "What are the relevant state estate tax rules where I live and where I own property?" Federal planning is not enough if you live in a state with a lower estate tax exemption.

A Certified Kingdom Advisor® (CKA®) has completed specific training in faith-and-finance integration, including giving and estate planning. That credential is one signal. A broader conversation about whether the advisor can actually engage these questions is the real test. Our guide on how to find a Christian financial advisor covers the vetting questions in full.

Getting started: the one move to make today

If you do nothing else after reading this guide, do this: log in to your IRA custodian and review your beneficiary designations. Many people have beneficiary forms that are years or decades old — naming an ex-spouse, a parent who has since died, or no one at all. Beneficiary designations override your will. An IRA with a stale beneficiary form goes where the form says, regardless of what your will says.

While you're there: confirm your spouse is named primary beneficiary if applicable, then decide who your contingent beneficiaries are — and whether any portion should go to your church. It costs nothing, requires no attorney, and takes 20 minutes. It is also, arguably, an act of stewardship.

Get matched with a faith-aligned estate planning advisor

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