Ever heard of this- tithing in a will?

[Rain]

One of my high school friends who has left the church said that Mormons are supposed to leave the church 10% of their estate in their will as the last tithing check.

I have never heard of this. Is there any kind of history that goes along with this? 

Edited March 12, 2018 by Rain

[mfbukowski]

4 minutes ago, Rain said:

One of my high school friends who has left the church said that Mormons are supposed to leave the church 10% of their estate in their will as the last tithing check.

I have never heard of this. Is there any kind of history that goes along with this? 

Nope.

Strictly speaking I think that is not accurate since tithing is supposed to be 10% of the "increase" ie: income.

Here we are talking about 10% of the principle- of everything.   

That is not the doctrine the way I understand it at all.

[strappinglad]

Perhaps your friend is confusing the Law of Consecration. I do know that  a while back there was a push from Friends of Scouting to have supporters leave something in the will to scouting.

Edited March 11, 2018 by strappinglad

[Duncan]

Never heard of that before. I suspect people leave money to the Church in their estates and generosity. The Nauvoo Temple was partly? mostly? paid for by a member giving money to the Church, said Pres. Hinckley in the April 1999 GC.

 "A member of the Church and his family have provided a very substantial contribution to make this possible"

 

I don't know if the person giving the money died though

[Rain]

10 minutes ago, mfbukowski said:

Nope.

Strictly speaking I think that is not accurate since tithing is supposed to be 10% of the "increase" ie: income.

Here we are talking about 10% of the principle- of everything.   

That is not the doctrine the way I understand it at all.

My thinking is also that if you have paid tithing all along then there really isn't a need to do it either.

So personally I also see no doctrinal reason for it. I'm really just wanting to know if at some point in history it was taught by general authorities or practiced on the whole by church membership.

 

[Rain]

Just now, strappinglad said:

Perhaps your friend is confusing the Law of Consecration. I do know that  a while back there was a push from Friends of Scouting to have supporters leave something in the will to scouting.

Are you thinking: you give everything to the church, the church gives it out to use and then everything goes back to the church?

I could see that being a confusion for her. 

[JLHPROF]

Don't know about tithing.  Personally I think if all debts and burial needs are met and there is no need of continued familial support then all final surpluses could be consecrated.  You can't take it with you.

[strappinglad]

13 minutes ago, JLHPROF said:

You can't take it with you

4 friends decided to put this to the test. They made a pact that when the first of them died , the other three would each put $100 in the coffin and the deceased would return from beyond to verify whether or not he got to keep the money. The first fellow passed and the friends each walked by the coffin .The first 2 guys each put $100 into the coffin. The third stopped at the coffin, wrote a check for $300 and took the $200 in change.

[Jeanne]

"And She's Buying the Stairway to Heaven"....(Led Zeppelin must have heard it somewhere)..

[Jeanne]

30 minutes ago, strappinglad said:

4 friends decided to put this to the test. They made a pact that when the first of them died , the other three would each put $100 in the coffin and the deceased would return from beyond to verify whether or not he got to keep the money. The first fellow passed and the friends each walked by the coffin .The first 2 guys each put $100 into the coffin. The third stopped at the coffin, wrote a check for $300 and took the $200 in change.

Good One...

[Robert F. Smith]

"Real property donations or bequests should be offered without stipulated conditions as to their use or disposition."  https://www.lds.org/bc/content/shared/content/english/pdf/language-materials/08636_eng.pdf?lang=eng .

"In order to designate The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter‐day Saints or its charities as a beneficiary for a charitable gift, the following language should be used:

Quote

 

Church General Fund

“...to the CORPORATION OF THE PRESIDENT OF THE CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST OF LATTER‐DAY SAINTS, a Utah corporation "sole" with offices in Salt Lake City, Utah, to be used for its GENERAL FUND, or if such need should not exist at the time of any distribution, then for those charitable purposes determined by the then President of the Church.” (Tax Identification Number: 23‐7300405)

 

Similar language applies to bequests given to other specific departments of the Church -- 

https://www.ldsphilanthropies.org/gift-planning/gift-planning-services/beneficiary-designations .

[mfbukowski]

1 hour ago, Rain said:

One of my high school friends who has left the church said that Mormons are supposed to leave the church 10% of their estate in their will as the last tithing check.

I have never heard of this. Is there any kind of history that goes along with this? 

Consider the source.... 

 

[Rain]

26 minutes ago, mfbukowski said:

Consider the source.... 

 

Oh, I have, but I also know there are many things that I have been told to consider the source that actually have history to back up their ideas even if they get it wrong in some way, which is why I asked here with people who are faithful and know church history. 

[Bernard Gui]

3 hours ago, Rain said:

One of my high school friends who has left the church said that Mormons are supposed to leave the church 10% of their estate in their will as the last tithing check.

I have never heard of this. Is there any kind of history that goes along with this? 

That would be entirely up to the individual. A widow in the ward when I served as bishop chose to leave her estate (nothing spectacular) to the Church. She designated percentages for tithing, fast offering, missionary fund, and a sum to hire a genealogist to research her family history. I was kinda disappointed that the LDS lawyer who set it up took a cut.

[cinepro]

Question 2: Do the people who inherit the money need to pay tithing on their inheritance?  Does it matter if the person who died stipulates tithing be paid before the inheritance?

[Rain]

17 minutes ago, Bernard Gui said:

That would be entirely up to the individual. A widow in the ward when I served as bishop chose to leave her estate (nothing spectacular) to the Church. She designated percentages for tithing, fast offering, missionary fund, and a sum to hire a genealogist to research her family history. I was kinda disappointed that the LDS lawyer who set it up took a cut.

The history is not entirely up to the individual. I am not asking for doctrine, or people's beliefs or individual actions, or misconceptions some people may have.

I am asking if there is some time in history that a general authority leader has said something to the fact that it should be done or if there was a period of time when it was done as a general rule. 

If no one knows of a time like that I am good with that. 

[longview]

3 hours ago, JLHPROF said:

Don't know about tithing.  Personally I think if all debts and burial needs are met and there is no need of continued familial support then all final surpluses could be consecrated.  You can't take it with you.

Better the Church than the government.   The first goes a long way and provides better bang for the buck.   The second would merely fatten the bureaucrats and go to waste.

[Tacenda]

19 minutes ago, Rain said:

The history is not entirely up to the individual. I am not asking for doctrine, or people's beliefs or individual actions, or misconceptions some people may have.

I am asking if there is some time in history that a general authority leader has said something to the fact that it should be done or if there was a period of time when it was done as a general rule. 

If no one knows of a time like that I am good with that. 

Did you google this? Maybe something might come up. 

I know my mother-in-law and father-in-law went to each of their eight children and made sure they were each doing well financially and expressed that some of their inheritance or a lot of their money would go to the church. This caused my husband to quit paying tithing because he worked for my father-in-law's business for twenty five years and was told it would be worth it in the end to stay with the company, even when his brothers and he wanted to venture out on their own in the same line of business. Well none of them got a dime because the partner in his dad's business took a lot of the money and the company went into bankruptcy. 

So I wonder if they were taught something also. They were in their late eighties.

[Bernard Gui]

29 minutes ago, Rain said:

The history is not entirely up to the individual. I am not asking for doctrine, or people's beliefs or individual actions, or misconceptions some people may have.

I am asking if there is some time in history that a general authority leader has said something to the fact that it should be done or if there was a period of time when it was done as a general rule. 

If no one knows of a time like that I am good with that. 

Not in my 50 years as a Priesthood leader

Edited March 12, 2018 by Bernard Gui

[Rain]

1 hour ago, Tacenda said:

Did you google this? Maybe something might come up. 

I know my mother-in-law and father-in-law went to each of their eight children and made sure they were each doing well financially and expressed that some of their inheritance or a lot of their money would go to the church. This caused my husband to quit paying tithing because he worked for my father-in-law's business for twenty five years and was told it would be worth it in the end to stay with the company, even when his brothers and he wanted to venture out on their own in the same line of business. Well none of them got a dime because the partner in his dad's business took a lot of the money and the company went into bankruptcy. 

So I wonder if they were taught something also. They were in their late eighties.

I didn't.  I wanted to come here where I trust sources a little better than I trust google or at least get a good idea of where it could be found.

I am really sorry that your in-laws did something different with their money than was promised to their children. That wasn't right and is a great example of why to not promise things to your children unless you know you can and will want to keep that promise. I do think though that this did not "cause" your husband to stop paying tithing, but rather it was his own choice - a choice that should be independent from what choice anyone else makes except for you in most cases. Either way though I'm sorry that it has been rough on both of you.

Edited March 12, 2018 by Rain

[The Nehor]

6 hours ago, strappinglad said:

Perhaps your friend is confusing the Law of Consecration. I do know that  a while back there was a push from Friends of Scouting to have supporters leave something in the will to scouting.

"To Friends of Scouting I bequeath my collection of authentically scented fossilized ox dung. May they treasure it as I have."

2 hours ago, longview said:

Better the Church than the government.   The first goes a long way and provides better bang for the buck.   The second would merely fatten the bureaucrats and go to waste.

Indeed, think of all those fatcat Army Privates and sanitation workers eating up all those sweet tax dollars. 

6 hours ago, Rain said:

My thinking is also that if you have paid tithing all along then there really isn't a need to do it either.

So personally I also see no doctrinal reason for it. I'm really just wanting to know if at some point in history it was taught by general authorities or practiced on the whole by church membership.

There is no requirement but it is an option. People get weird with inheritance money. The kids start to think of their parent's money as belonging to them and see the Church as stealing it. I would hazard that if you give money to the Church in your will with the expectation that this will help you get to heaven you are probably going to burn in hell. Leaving something you cannot take with you anyways as a bribe is not really that generous. If you just sincerely want to aid the Church in its mission then it can be a nice gesture.

[Tacenda]

1 hour ago, The Nehor said:

 

Edited March 12, 2018 by Tacenda

[Rain]

8 hours ago, The Nehor said:

 

There is no requirement but it is an option. People get weird with inheritance money. The kids start to think of their parent's money as belonging to them and see the Church as stealing it. I would hazard that if you give money to the Church in your will with the expectation that this will help you get to heaven you are probably going to burn in hell. Leaving something you cannot take with you anyways as a bribe is not really that generous. If you just sincerely want to aid the Church in its mission then it can be a nice gesture.

The odd thing with my friend is that she is upset about how the will was written, but the church wasn't getting anything. She basically said that someone had too much influence over the deceased before he died and got the bulk of the estate and cheated the rest out of their entire share and even cheated the church out of the "last tithing check".

This is just another reason why my husband and I expect nothing from our parents and will be pleasantly surprised if we get something. He saw his extended family torn apart when one family member got much more than the rest and we don't want to make the money/things more important than relationships when the time comes. 

[The Nehor]

1 hour ago, Rain said:

The odd thing with my friend is that she is upset about how the will was written, but the church wasn't getting anything. She basically said that someone had too much influence over the deceased before he died and got the bulk of the estate and cheated the rest out of their entire share and even cheated the church out of the "last tithing check".

This is just another reason why my husband and I expect nothing from our parents and will be pleasantly surprised if we get something. He saw his extended family torn apart when one family member got much more than the rest and we don't want to make the money/things more important than relationships when the time comes. 

It has been my experience that too often “had too much influence over the deceased” often translates to “took care of them in their old age” in which case I would expect them to get more. Not saying this is the case here but I find it sad that people who visited once a year at Christmas to expect an equal share with those who took them to doctor appointments, visited them weekly, or even put their careers on hold to care for them full time.

If my parents who are in their sixties (and are thankfully very healthy physically and mentally) were to go downhill and one sibling were to move back home or live close and take care of them for several years I would expect them to get more of the estate but I am not worried about it. As long as I get my Old Testament double share for being the oldest child I am good with it.

Edited March 12, 2018 by The Nehor

[JAHS]

17 hours ago, Rain said:

One of my high school friends who has left the church said that Mormons are supposed to leave the church 10% of their estate in their will as the last tithing check.

I have never heard of this. Is there any kind of history that goes along with this? 

Here's a site that explain how to name the Church as the beneficiary in your will:

https://www.ldsphilanthropies.org/gift-planning/gift-planning-services/register-will-and-trust