Life Insurance and Retirement Accounts

Life insurance policies and retirement plan assets are often overlooked as means of charitable support.  They are both very simple for you to gift to The Cooper Union.  Naming a charitable organization a beneficiary of an IRA, 401(k) or other retirement plan also provides tax advantages to an estate.

Life Insurance

You transfer ownership of a paid-up life insurance policy to The Cooper Union.  The Cooper Union cashes the policy now, or maintains it and receives the death benefit later.

Your Benefits

  • Make a gift using an asset that you and your family no longer need
  • Receive an immediate income tax deduction for the cash surrender value of the policy
  • Gain the satisfaction of making a significant gift to The Cooper Union without adversely affecting your cash flow
  • Invitation to join The Society of 1859

Retirement Plan Assets
You name The Cooper Union as the beneficiary of all or a portion of your IRA, 401(k) or other qualified plan.  After your lifetime, the residue of your plan passes to The Cooper Union tax-free.

Your Benefits

  • Escape both income AND estate tax levied on the residue left in your retirement account by leaving it to The Cooper Union
  • Give the most-taxed asset in your estate to The Cooper Union, and leave more favorably taxed property to your heirs
  • Continue to take withdrawals during your lifetime
  • Change the beneficiary if your circumstances change
  • Invitation to join The Society of 1859

If you have any questions, please contact Donna Lippman, Director of Planned Giving, at (212) 353-4172 or dlippman@cooper.edu.

  • Founded by inventor, industrialist and philanthropist Peter Cooper in 1859, The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art offers education in art, architecture and engineering, as well as courses in the humanities and social sciences.

  • “My feelings, my desires, my hopes, embrace humanity throughout the world,” Peter Cooper proclaimed in a speech in 1853. He looked forward to a time when, “knowledge shall cover the earth as waters cover the great deep.”

  • From its beginnings, Cooper Union was a unique institution, dedicated to founder Peter Cooper's proposition that education is the key not only to personal prosperity but to civic virtue and harmony.

  • Peter Cooper wanted his graduates to acquire the technical mastery and entrepreneurial skills, enrich their intellects and spark their creativity, and develop a sense of social justice that would translate into action.