Definition
A trust that pays a stream of income to one or more charities for a fixed period, after which the remaining assets pass to family members or other non-charitable beneficiaries.
A Charitable Lead Trust (CLT) inverts the structure of a Charitable Remainder Trust: charity comes first, family comes after. During the trust's term, a defined payment flows to one or more qualified charities. At the end of the term, whatever remains in the trust — ideally grown through investment — passes to heirs. The key planning idea is that the taxable gift to heirs is discounted because they must wait for the charitable payments to finish before receiving anything.
Families sometimes evaluate CLTs in low-interest-rate environments, because the IRS discount rate used to value the remainder interest means heirs can receive more wealth with less gift-tax cost when that rate is low. A hypothetical founder who sold her logistics company and wants to fund a decade of charitable giving while ultimately transferring wealth to her children might explore a CLT as one structure worth understanding alongside others.
Two variants matter: the grantor CLT, in which the grantor takes an upfront charitable income-tax deduction but must report trust income each year, and the non-grantor CLT, which takes no upfront deduction but is taxed as a separate entity. Choosing between them involves trade-offs that depend on the grantor's income, tax situation, and time horizon. As with all charitable trust structures, a qualified attorney and CPA must evaluate whether a CLT is appropriate for any particular family's circumstances.
Last reviewed August 25, 2026 · Editorial Policy
