Transmit by bequest, donation or life insurance

You want to make CAMELEON benefit all or part of your assets without separate you from your assets during your lifetime while preserving your family when you decease. In this case, you can make a legacy to CAMELEON.

The « legacy » is a gift made by the decedent to a legatee under the terms of a Will. Transfer of ownership occurs when the testator dies. The purpose is whether to assign all or part of his estate to a person who was not normally entitled to receive inheritance or to assign to one of his legal heirs a share of an amount exceeding the share of Inheritance Law holds. The beneficiary of a legacy is called the ‘heir’ or ‘legatee’.

The various forms of legacy:

> The universal legacy: you donate your entire heritage.
> A legacy by general title: you donate a portion of your wealth (third, half, etc.) or class of goods (all movable or immovable property).
> The particular legacy: you donate one or more clearly identified assets (a sum of money, financial investments, an apartment, jewelry, paintings, etc.).

How to bequeath CAMELEON?

The legacy must be by testamentary disposition. You can choose between different types of wills:

> The Handwritten Will, called « holograph » : It is a testament that you write by hand, on plain paper, dated and signed. It is best to have it registered with a notary.
> The Authentic Will: The will is dictated to the notary in the presence of two witnesses or a second notary.
> The Mystic Will: Testamentary provisions are written and kept secret by the testator. The will is then presented by the testator in a sealed envelope to the notary, before two witnesses.

Your notary will take care of registering your will for a reasonable cost to the central database of the provisions of last will, which is your guarantee that it will be taken into account when settling your estate.

Can we bequeath to a nonprofit without risking disinherits our loved ones?

Yes, regardless of the type of legacies, the law ensures the descendants (children, grandchildren), and the surviving spouse a portion of the estate called “reserve”, even if the Will does not expressly mention it. This share varies according to your family situation. In order to know the proportion, the easiest way is to check with a notary. In the absence of heirs, your assets belong to the State.

Reserve and quota available in the presence of descendants:

Can a childless couple bequeath his assets to CAMELEON Association and ensure that the surviving spouse can continue to benefit?

Yes, you only need to provide a usufruct for life of all or part of your property in a will for the benefit of your spouse. Thus the heritage will not return to the association until the death of the last survivor.

How to change the will?

Whatever its form, the Will can always be amended or revoked at any time:

> It can be simply modified or supplemented by a “codicil” which must take the same form as the Will.
> Or it can be replaced with a new Will which must specify it revokes the previous. If there’s no specific mention, the new provisions Will replace the old in the presence of a contradiction (do not forget to date the new Will).

Should I tell CAMELEON Association if I decide to make a bequest in its favor?

The legislation does not oblige you in any way to inform anyone of your decision. However, if you decide to bequeath all or part of your assets to CAMELEON Association, it is best to send a copy to them and to a notary (in case of a handwritten Will “holograph”).

This approach allows you to make sure your Will be found and respected. Besides, thanks to the advice of the notary, it allows to avoid any error in the drafting of your Will which could nullify it.

Tax system

Charitable Association CAMELEON is exempt all inheritance tax. This means that the legacy fully benefits children and programs of the Association.

Do you wish to give a significant amount of money? If so, you can make a donation. This is a major commitment to serve our cause, a gesture for today. Unlike a legacy, which happens after death, a donation is a good or a sum of money that you can give during your lifetime, immediately and irrevocably.

What can I give?

All types of goods can be given through a donation: a sum of money, property securities (stock options, bonds, SICAV, FPC.), real estate, jewelry, furniture, works of art, etc.
However, donated goods must be officially owned by the donor on the day of the donation.

Which share can I give?

If you have children, you are not allowed to manage all your goods or property freely. According to succession law, a share of your estate called “legal reserve” has to be passed down to your forced heirs (descendants, ascendants, surviving spouse).

You can manage freely the remaining share, called “disposable portion” which equals to:

> half of your estate if you have one child,
> a third of your estate if you have two children,
> a quarter of it if you have three or more children.

In the absence of descendants (children), half of the inheritance passes down to ascendants (parents and grandparents) if any on both the maternal and paternal lines. If there are ascendants only in one of both lines, the legal reserve is limited to a quarter of the inheritance.

The different types of donations:

> Donation in full property: the donor abandons all or part of his estate irrevocably to the benefit of CAMELEON.
> A donation with reservation of usufruct : If you own goods or investments that generate earnings (property securities, real estate properties, etc.) you can give away their bare ownership (right to dispose of the property after the death of the donor) to CAMELEON, which can accept it. On your side you keep the usufruct, which mean the right to perceive the earnings of the goods during your lifetime or to occupy it yourself.
> A temporary donation of usufruct: If you own a good (real estate property or securities portfolio) which generates earnings, you can give temporarily its usufruct and therefore give CAMELEON the capacity to perceive these earnings for a duration of your choice within 30 years maximum. This donation has the advantage to take the good and its interests out of your Solidarity taw on wealth tax base during the period of the temporary usufruct. You keep the bare ownership of your goods or property. You or your inheritors would recover the full ownership of the goods or property on the day of the termination of the temporary usufruct.

If you inherit a real estate property and choose to sell it, you can give the whole or part of its selling price. This kind of donation reduces the inheritance rights you have to pay, on condition that it happens within six months following the death of the person from whom you inherit.

How do I make a donation to CAMELEON?

The donation procedure is quite simple and consists in transferring rights or ownership of goods from a donor to the beneficiary. The donor must resort to a notary to complete this procedure. If you wish to make a donation to CAMELEON:

> First have a draft of an act of donation written by a notary who will send it to us.
> After receiving it, our board will decide upon accepting your donation.
> The prefecture of the headquarters of CAMELEON will have to authorize the donation after having verified that the donation does not affect the legal reserve of your inheritors.
> Then the donation is certified in due legal form the donation is certified in due legal form in presence of the donor and the beneficiary and takes immediate effect.

Tax benefit

You can benefit from a tax reduction of 75% within 20% of your taxable income. Beyond this limit, you can carry over the surplus during 5 years and benefit from the reduction in the same conditions. The reduction is only granted if you join the tax receipt sent to you by CAMELEON to your income declaration.

If you want to transfer money to CAMELEON, without making a testimony, you can designate us as a beneficiary of your life insurance, mentioning our name and information on your contract (subscribed to your insurer, bank, savings…). Such a contract is simple and requires few formalities. Furthermore the amount is quickly transmitted, without fees or taxation.

What is life insurance?

A life insurance contract allows the subscriber to place an amount of money to build a capital, and then transmit his Estate.

The life insurance purchaser of an individual life insurance can designate one or several beneficiaries on his contract, that is the person or the organization to whom the capital will be given at the time of death.

There are no rightful heirs in life insurance. You can therefore designate CAMELEON for the entirety of the capital.

How can you designate CAMELEON as a beneficiary?

> Indicating CAMELEON as a recipient when signing your contract.
> Asking your insurer to change or add a beneficiary to an existing contract. Indeed, a single contract can have several recipients.
> Remember to inform CAMELEON about your decision so that we may claim the benefit of the contract in due time.

What is the value of Life insurance?

The capital given to CAMELEON will not be part of the estate unless your prime numbers are clearly exaggerated compared to your heritage. In that case your potential heirs could file a claim.

Life insurance remains an investment that has its own taxation as long as you are alive, thus it enables you to enjoy it during your lifetime. It can also leave a capital to the association because of the beneficiary clause. The association is exempt from any tax; the benefit will therefore be total.

• Case 1 – Payments made before the insured person’s 70th birthday: inheritance tax is waived if the capital (payments and capital gains) paid are less than € 152,500 per beneficiary. There is a lump sum tax of 20% on the capital and on the social levies on the capital gains if the amount exceeds € 152 500 per beneficiary.
• Case 2 – Payments made after the insured person’s 70 years of age: there is a total exemption from inheritance tax on realized capital gains but they are subject to social security contributions (CSG + RDS). If the amount of the premiums he has paid exceeds € 30,500, this will be subject to inheritance tax.

> Do not forget to inform CAMELEON about your decision, so that we may make use of the contract benefit, in due time.