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Making a Bequest

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Leave a Lasting Legacy

A bequest is a gift from your estate – a transfer of cash, securities, or other property made through your estate plans. You can make a bequest to the Brain Injury Association of America by including language in your will or living trust to leave a portion of your estate to the Association or by designating BIAA as a beneficiary of your retirement account or life insurance policy.

Remembering the Brain Injury Association of America with a bequest from your estate will help sustain and strengthen the Association in years to come. Some of the advantages of creating a bequest include:

Retaining control and use of your assets during your lifetime
The ability to modify your bequest if your circumstances change
Tax exemptions as gifts to BIAA from your estate are exempt from federal estate taxes
If you let BIAA know of your plans, we will be able to thank you now and recognize you as a member of our Futures Fund Legacy Society.

A bequest costs nothing today, yet gives you the satisfaction of knowing you have provided for BIAA in the future. If you’re looking for other planned giving opportunities, click here. For information about giving stocks and securities, click here.

Types of Bequests

Residuary bequests give all or a portion of the remainder of your estate after payment of expenses and any specific amounts designated to other beneficiaries.
Specific bequests are used to make a gift of a specific dollar amount or specific assets, such as stocks, bonds, real estate, or personal property.
Contingent bequests in your will allow you to name an alternate beneficiary of your will, personal trust, or retirement plan in the event that one or more of your specific bequests cannot be fulfilled.

If you want to leave a legacy for the Brain Injury Association of America, you may use the suggested wording shown below. Please keep in mind that each individual situation is unique; therefore, these samples include only some of the possible gift opportunities. Click here to download sample bequest text.

Let Us Thank You: Futures Fund Legacy Society

If you have included the Brain Injury Association of America in your estate plans, please let us know. We would like to thank you for your generosity, make sure the purpose of your gift is understood by the Association, and recognize you as a member of the Futures Fund Legacy Society.

"He wanted to leave the world a better place by giving a chance to the underdog."

Lance and Laura Trexler have spent decades together serving the brain injury community.

In celebration of their commitment to the brain injury community, they have made a major gift to the Brain Injury Research Fund through their support of a dissertation grant. The grant will be awarded annually, giving a young researcher a leg-up while advancing discovery. Their motivation is twofold: recognizing the need to sustain the field of brain injury and to advance it at the same time. “The future will be defined by our youth; attracting the brightest young professionals into brain injury is critical,” shares Laura.

Laura, an occupational therapist and Certified Brain Injury Specialist, helped design the current resource facilitation model used across the country. “We have a strong passion for what we do for a living, and our lives have been very much enriched by knowing individuals who show courage day in and day out through their recovery,” explains Laura. Lance is an award-winning neuropsychologist who received the Brain Injury Association of America (BIAA) Sheldon Berrol, M.D. Clinical Service Award in 2020 for his work to improve the quality of care, professional training, and education in the field of brain injury. He adds, “While we have seen a lot of positive changes in 40 years of service, we still have a long way to go in understanding brain injury.”

It was their shared commitment to the brain injury community and passion for bettering lives that brought Lance and Laura together in a clinical setting in the 1980s. Since then, both have logged countless volunteer hours, mentored many young professionals, and driven needed change. This includes recognizing brain injury as a chronic condition, challenging private and public health care systems to work together, and improving the ability of schools to recognize the impact of brain injury earlier. “You do not have to accept that the cognitive, physical, and behavior effects of brain injury are permanent and that nothing can be done about it,” Lance asserts. Laura agrees, noting, “We make a lot of negative assessments about people because of brain injury. I wish people took time to think before they made quick judgements and understood what got them there.”

For more information about the Brain Injury Research Fund or becoming a Research Champion, please contact Paula Eichholz, Senior Director of Development, at (703) 761-0750 ext. 648 or peichholz@biausa.org. To download our research brochure, click here .

Support the Brain Injury Association of America's Research Fund

"It is critically important for us to advance awareness, research, treatment, and education of such injuries, and to improve the lives of every single human being who is or who will be affected by them."