My recent series about the role of an executor encouraged “Jane” to share her story and ask about gifts to charity:

“I have a unique situation in that I have no spouse, no children nor other blood family members to whom I plan to leave anything other than token personal items. I do have close friends, one of whom has agreed to be my executor. How is it possible to leave any remaining IRA assets to a designated charity? I do not have a very high net worth and would prefer not to overcomplicate my estate planning situation.”

Let’s talk through some options.

First: If you have a particular charity in mind, you can name the charity as a beneficiary of your IRA. You would ask the custodian of your IRA to provide you with a “beneficiary designation form” for you to write in the name of the charity.

If I wanted to leave my IRA to two local hospitals, for example, I would use the beneficiary designation form to write in “Stamford Hospital” for 50% of the IRA and “Greenwich Hospital” for 50%.

This type of gift becomes effective after death through the beneficiary designation, which acts as a will substitute. That is, the beneficiary designation controls the disposition of the IRA, and if you don’t use the beneficiary designation to name a beneficiary, the IRA custodial agreement will provide a default provision that will apply. The will does not interfere with or take precedence over the beneficiary designation.

If Jane does not have a particular charity in mind, another option is to set up a donor-advised fund, or DAF, and name the DAF as the IRA beneficiary.

Setting up a DAF is relatively simple; there are costs associated with DAFs, and typically, they are used for lifetime charitable gifting....