Christian Stewardship and the Estate Planning Process

We believe it is vitally important for every Christian to be prudent and wise when planning his/her estate. A person’s will and trust become an expression of his Christian testimony and a commentary on those things he/she considered important. That is one reason we at EFM are pleased to say that we have partnered with some of the finest estate planning resources available today. These include a partnership with The Mennonite Foundation of Goshen, Indiana, and with LifeStyle Giving, of Southern California. Through these arrangements, we can offer you assistant in helping you make the best decisions for you and your family. Our new brochure, “New Ways to Support Your Friends in Mission,” describes the cooperative arrangement between Evangelical Friends Mission and the Mennonite Foundation.

You can play an instrumental part in ensuring EFM’s ministry future through your estate and gift planning today. Depending upon the arrangements you choose, you may also:

• Reduce your income taxes

• Avert capital gains tax

• Increase your current income

• Receive payments for life

• Achieve no-cost, worry-free asset management

Estate planning can benefit you and your heirs.  In addition to the benefits mentioned above, estate planning can reduce costly and lengthy legal proceedings for the division and distribution of assets, but most importantly, it will assure you that your assets are allocated according to your desires.

Because of the importance of getting good financial and wise stewardship counsel during this process, EFM has made an arrangement for our friends like you to benefit from the services of the Mennonite Foundation and/or LifeStyle Giving to assist you in the planning of your estate. These services are available at no cost or obligation to you, and are, of course, confidential in nature. Both of these groups offer privacy and impartial counsel to design a very personal estate plan, which meets your goals with available trust and tax strategies. To learn more about these services (click here).

You may already have an estate plan. That would not be unusual. Often what we do is provide an objective, independent analysis of existing plans. And whether you have a plan or are just starting to look into estate planning issues, we urge you to discover how EFM and our planning partners may be of service to you and your family.

If you would like a specially designed estate plan, we will send you “Confidential Estate Inventory” forms, along with several pages of instruction and comments regarding filling out the inventory forms. Do not be intimidated by these forms.  In order to give you the best possible assistance in this area, we will need as complete a record as you can provide us.

For more information to assist you in this area go to the Mennonite Foundation and browse. Explore all of the options that you see there, and download that which will be helpful to you.