A No-Cost Estate Planning Service for Christian Donors
Estate Design is a no-cost consultation service for Christian donors thinking through their estate. Our team works alongside you to clarify your values, review your assets, and shape a plan that reflects what God has entrusted to your family.
The service costs you nothing. The estate planning attorney you eventually work with is your own. We provide the conversation that comes before the legal work, the one about purpose, family, and what you want your generosity to mean.
For nearly fifty years, Cru Foundation has helped Christian donors think through these questions. There is no obligation in the conversation. It exists to serve you.
Most estate planning services help you put legal documents in place. Wills, trusts, powers of attorney, healthcare directives. The legal documents matter, and an attorney drafts them when the time comes.
Estate Design is the work that happens before the legal documents. A member of our team sits down with you, listens to what you have built, and helps you sort through what you want it to do. Some of that is financial. Most of it is not. The questions that take the longest are usually the ones about your family, your faith, and the kind of steward you want to be remembered as.
When the picture is clearer, the legal work goes faster and costs you less. Your attorney drafts documents that already reflect decisions you have made with people who know you. That is the value of starting here.
Estate Design fits Christian donors who want their estate to do more than transfer assets.
The donors who get the most out of this service tend to share three things.
- They want their faith to shape their estate, not just their giving while they are alive. What the family inherits, how it is structured, and what it funds beyond the family — these are stewardship questions, not just tax questions.
- They have assets that need real planning. A primary residence, retirement accounts, business interests, real estate, appreciated stock. The more there is, the more an outside perspective helps.
- They are open to a conversation about kingdom impact. Not as an obligation, but as part of how they want to be remembered.
If that describes your situation, Estate Design is built for you. If you are earlier in the process — still working through whether you need an estate plan at all — the free guide below is a better starting point than a conversation.
Estate Design is not an online will service or a wealth management firm.
Three kinds of estate planning services exist for most donors. Each does something different.
Online will and trust services
Trust & Will, LegalZoom, FreeWill
These platforms generate legal documents quickly and at low cost. They work well for donors with straightforward estates who already know what they want the documents to say. The strength is speed. The limit is that you do the thinking on your own.
Wealth management firms
Fidelity, Creative Planning, your financial advisor
Estate planning offered as part of a broader wealth management relationship, usually for clients whose assets the firm already oversees. The service is solid, the cost is built into the asset management relationship, and the focus is the financial side of your estate.
Estate Design
Cru Foundation
We do not draft your legal documents and we do not manage your assets. Estate Design is the conversation that should happen before either. Our team works with Christian donors on the questions of family, faith, and kingdom impact that shape what the legal documents will eventually say. The service costs you nothing.
For most donors, Estate Design happens once. The conversation produces clarity, and the legal documents follow.
Our Estate Design Service provides
Faith-based, Values-aligned Specialists
Cru Foundation’s experienced estate design specialists are aligned with your Christian values and have a heart for the ministries and missionaries you love.
A Steward’s Perspective
Cru Foundation offers estate design through the lens of God’s ownership. We believe that people are more important than money and that family relationships should flourish as a result of your planning.
Confidential, No Obligation Services
Cru Foundation is here to serve. That means no fees, no commissions, no products and without obligation. And your personal information is always confidential and secure.
And the benefits for you and your family include
- Meet personal and family financial goals and help safeguard relationships.
- Reduce or eliminate taxes.
- Effectively transfer the right assets to the right people and organizations.
- Maximize tax-advantaged giving to the kingdom.
- Accelerate the fulfillment of the Great Commission!
Get a FREE Estate Planning Guide
Are you ready to plan your will or trust? We want to give you a FREE Estate Planning Guide. This guide gives steps to simplify the process and when you’re ready, Cru Foundation can partner with you to develop a “blueprint” for a new will or trust.
One Family's Journey
Listen to the testimony from Tim and Kathy Bush, a ministry partner couple who had been searching and trying to figure out their plans for several years before journeying with Cru Foundation. Now they feel a sense of peace and that a burden has been lifted off their shoulders.
The Guide provides the foundational biblical perspective of our estate design process that is technically accurate and explains in greater detail how this approach is unique for those motivated to discover God’s plan for their estate.
Our professional staff is ready to listen to your personal goals and unique needs of your intended Design. We will schedule a brief personal exploratory meeting by phone or Zoom.
The Confidential Estate Inventory is designed to assist you in gathering the necessary and relevant data for your estate planning. Complete the sections – the “Five P’s” of Estate Planning: People, Passions, Property, Plans and Planners. Each section contains straightforward guidelines to summarize your personal situation, family goals, charitable intent, and your supporting documents needed to accompany your will or trust.
In about three weeks, we return a customized Estate Design document using your information that proposes a strategy to minimize taxes, meet family goals, and support the ministries you love! We summarize implementation steps and key decisions to consider before drafting your will or trust documents that discuss each aspect of your individual estate, personally incorporating the data you provide in the Confidential Estate Inventory form.
We provide a step-by-step process to guide your decision-making through to completion. You will be prepared to create legal documents or meet with an attorney to execute your plans. This pre-work often reduces time and cost while increasing the quality of your estate plans.
Gift Design Service
Often, the estate design process includes questions about the best way to give a current gift from an estate. This could be a gift of real estate, property, or a business interest. Cru Foundation can provide an illustration to show you how you give that asset now, rather than in the future. The individualized illustration will walk you through the impact of the gift on both the receiving ministry as well as the tax implications for your estate. Many donors use the estate design service as a way to discover how to be most effective in their kingdom giving while they can have the joy of seeing the impact!
Name Cru Ministries in your Estate Plans today
As a leader in the community of faith, Cru Foundation has seen many estates and administered many estate gifts. When you leave your estate gift to us, you will have peace of mind knowing that your special gifts will be handled with skill.
* The content on this page is for educational and informational purposes only. It does not constitute legal, tax, or financial advice. Please consult with qualified professional advisors regarding your specific situation before making any giving or planning decisions.