January 12, 2026

The One Big Beautiful Bill Act, signed July 4, 2025, reshapes charitable giving tax rules. Non-itemizers can now deduct up to $1,000/$2,000 in cash gifts. Itemizers face a new 0.5% AGI floor and a 35% benefit cap. A $1,700 federal tax credit for K–12 scholarship donations begins in 2027. Corporations must exceed a 1% income floor before deducting gifts. Smart planning strategies include bunching gifts and leveraging donor-advised funds.

Bequests don’t begin with documents, dashboards, or digital forms. They begin with trust—and trust is built through conversation. When a donor is asked, clearly and respectfully, to consider a gift in their will, the likelihood of follow-through increases dramatically. This guide exists to remove the hesitation, provide the language, and show why relationship-based legacy conversations consistently outperform passive, click-driven approaches.