The Fiske Kimball Society was formed in 1999 both to honor the memory of Fiske Kimball and his spirit of supporting the Museum. Friends of the Museum have become members of The Fiske Kimball Society both by undertaking planned giving opportunities that benefit the Museum and their families, and by informing the Museum of an intended bequest.

Membership Information

• Giving to the Philadelphia Museum of Art through your will

Outright Bequests

One of the most popular and easiest planned gifts is to include the Philadelphia Museum of Art in your will or revocable living trust. If you already have a will, it is not necessary to rewrite your entire will to make a bequest to the Museum. You can simply instruct your attorney to prepare a codicil—an amendment—to your current will or living trust. If you choose to make an outright bequest, the provision in your will or codicil can be very straightforward. For example:

I hereby give, devise and bequeath to the Philadelphia Museum of Art, a nonprofit corporation organized and operating under the laws of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sum of $_______(or ___ percent of the rest, residue and remainder of my estate) to be used for the general purposes of the Museum (or for a particular program of your choosing).

• Making a gift that provides you (or someone you designate) with income for life

Charitable Gift Annuity

A Charitable Gift Annuity is a contractual agreement between you and the Philadelphia Museum of Art. In exchange for your gift of cash, securities, or other property, the Museum will provide you with a guaranteed, lifelong annuity, a portion of which is tax-free. The percentage rates which determine your annuity payments range from 5 to 11.5 percent, depending upon your age and the age of your other designated beneficiary. A Deferred Charitable Gift Annuity offers you the opportunity to claim a charitable deduction in the year of your gift, but the payments will begin at a designated future time. The longer the deferral, the higher the charitable deduction you will enjoy. Read a special story about Gene and George Rochberg who recently established a charitable gift annuity.

Pooled Life Income Fund

The Museum's Pooled Life Income Fund is a type of charitable trust that operates in a manner similar to a "mutual fund." Your gift of cash, securities, or other property is pooled with gifts from other donors. The Fund invests all of the assets with the primary objective of current income and secondary objective capital growth. A share of the net income proportionate to the share of the Fund principal you contributed will be paid to you or your designated beneficiary. Upon your death (or the death of your designated beneficiary) your proportionate share of the Fund principal will be withdrawn and given to the Museum. To find out the anticipated income for the upcoming year, as well as return rates for previous years, contact Development.

Charitable Remainder Trust

A Charitable Remainder Trust is a type of charitable trust that provides you and/or another beneficiary(s) with income for life or a specific period of time and thereafter distributes the remaining assets to the Museum. Unlike the Pooled Life Income Fund, a Charitable Remainder Trust is individually tailored to meet your needs: you can select the beneficiaries, the Trustees (including the Museum), the distribution rate, and the type of Charitable Remainder Trust. A Charitable Remainder Unitrust pays an annual distribution based on the value of the principal, re-valued annually. With a Charitable Remainder Annuity Trust, annual distribution is fixed and based upon the value of the principal at the time of the gift. Since each trust is individually tailored there is more flexibility in the type of property that can be donated, including real estate, tax-free municipal bonds and works of art or antiques.

• Making a gift that may save estate taxes while passing assets to your children

Charitable Lead Trust

A Charitable Lead Trust enables you to preserve a large portion of your estate and pass assets tax-free to yourself or to your heirs. The Trust holds an income-producing asset for a fixed term, or your lifetime, during which time income is paid to the Museum. At the conclusion of the trust term, the asset is returned to you or to another beneficiary. A Charitable Lead Trust allows you to get substantial assets out of your taxable estate and into the hands of your beneficiaries at a low gift tax cost to you while benefiting the Museum.

Testamentary Trusts

In order to provide income for a friend or family member while providing an estate tax deductible gift to the Museum, you can through your will create a Testamentary Charitable Remainder Trust. Such trusts may be funded with a variety of assets, all of which will generate estate tax savings. Funding Charitable Remainder Trusts from an individual's retirement plan assets reduces estate taxes. Alternatively, you may prefer a Testamentary Charitable Lead Trust which provides an estate tax deductible income stream to the Museum for a set period of time and thereafter pays any remaining assets to your family members or other designated beneficiaries.

• Naming the Philadelphia Museum of Art as the beneficiary of a retirement plan or life insurance policy

Gifts of Tax-Deferred Retirement Plans and Life Insurance Policies

The combination of federal income, estate and excise taxes can seriously erode the value of retirement savings. Designating the Philadelphia Museum of Art as a beneficiary or contingent beneficiary of all or a specified percentage of your 401K or other retirement plan assets can save your estate both income and federal estate taxes.

You may also designate the Museum as owner/beneficiary of a life insurance policy—either a new policy or an existing one you and your family no longer need.

Naming the Museum as beneficiary of your retirement plan or life insurance policy is easy. Simply contact your retirement plan administrator or insurance agent and ask for the appropriate forms.

Disclaimer: The purpose of this web page is to provide information of a general character only. The Philadelphia Museum of Art is not engaged in rendering legal or tax advisory service. Advice from legal and tax counsel should be sought when considering these types of gifts.

The Museum will acknowledge a bequest intention or other planned gift of any size with membership in The Fiske Kimball Society. (See a list of members)

During his thirty-year tenure as Director of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Fiske Kimball oversaw the completion of the interior of the vast Neoclassical building and the installation of its world-renowned collections. Trained as an architectural historian, Kimball had a passion for presenting fine art in the context of significant interiors of the same culture and period. With this in mind, he sent his curators throughout the world, and they returned with magnificent rooms that include a French Medieval cloister, a Chinese palace hall, an eighteenth-century English drawing room, and an early twentieth-century Japanese teahouse, all of which are treasured by visitors today.

Kimball so cared for this institution that he bequeathed his own estate, in its entirety, to the Museum. His bequest, now part of the Museum's endowment, continues to provide important support for the acquisition of new works of art every year.

All inquires are confidential and without obligation.

For more information, please contact Development by phone at (215) 684-7750, by fax at (215) 236-0796, or by e-mail at .