 You may not have children, or you do have children, but those children are pretty well off. If you fall into that group, perhaps you're wondering if there are any good estate planning ideas to fit your situation. Or what if you've made a nice living and just want to help out a good cause in some way? I hope my little educational video gives you something to think about. I'll use a single person in my example, but this would apply to a married couple in the same situation. Also, my ideas might fit in with situations where you want to leave a chunk of your money to your family or other loved ones, but there's going to be an amount left over that you'd like to do something special with. One thing you might want to consider is setting up a special scholarship fund or other charitable bequest. Here's an example of what I'm talking about. Bob has done pretty well. His wife died a few years ago, and he has two grown children that don't live in the area. He's decided to give his children about 75% of his living trust assets upon his death. And he came into my office to see if we could figure out what he could do with the remaining 25%. After spending some time talking about his goals and wishes, I suggested setting up a scholarship fund as part of his trust's final recipe. By the way, if you want to find out what I mean by recipe, take a few minutes after this video and watch my video on the basics of a living trust. Anyway, upon Bob's death, his trust recipe section spells out how some of his money will be used to fund a small scholarship fund for deserving students enrolled in the School of Engineering of his alma mater. A certain amount of money would be given to four deserving students each year because Bob wanted to give something back to his school and he wanted to help folks that needed a little boost to get going in life. This idea suited Bob's way of thinking, but you could also give a lump sum to a college or university to establish a scholarship fund in your name, or you could give a donation and let the school decide. The example I used discussed some kind of scholarship fund, but there are lots of other charitable ideas that you might want to consider. You might want to give money to an organization that helps the homeless or protects the environment or helps animals or abandoned pets. If this is something that interests you, I'm pretty sure you can come up with some ideas that will do some needy folks or noble cause a lot of good. One more thought, and this is a little complex, you may want to set up a charitable remainder trust. The basic idea of a charitable remainder trust is that you set aside an amount of money you want to give to a charity upon your death. That amount of money is given to a type of trust you set up called a charitable remainder trust. For a term of years or for the rest of your life, you get a fixed percentage or a fixed amount from the money you set aside in that trust. Then upon your death, what's left over will be given to the charitable beneficiaries you've selected. A charitable remainder trust is irrevocable, but the law allows you to change the charitable beneficiaries if you'd like. The IRS has established rules and regulations concerning charitable remainder trusts, including rules about percentages and amounts you can receive. But these trusts are still pretty amazing. Let me give you one example. Let's say you own a piece of rental property. If that property is debt free, it's possible to transfer that property to a charitable remainder trust. Sell the property within that charitable remainder trust and use the remaining money for a term of years or the rest of your life as part of the payout from your charitable remainder trust. Why is this possible? Because a properly drafted charitable remainder trust does not have to pay any capital gains tax upon the sale of that property within that trust. So by following the IRS rules, the money that would have been paid to the government for the capital gains tax aspect remains in the charitable trust for your use under the terms of the trust. Hey, this is complicated stuff, and in no way can a short little video clear up any questions or issues that apply to your specific situation. But learning about the basics of charitable giving is something you may want to consider when setting up or revising your estate plan. I hope you've learned something from my video. I'm Attorney Hollis Logue.