Can I transfer my IRA assets into a charitable-gift annuity sponsored by a qualified nonprofit, and thereby receive the same future stream of monthly income payments as I would by buying an immediate income annuity from an insurer? I am 65 years old and would prefer to leave these assets to an alma mater university rather than an insurance company upon my death.

Bill Hay, Chicago

You can transfer assets from your individual retirement account to a charitable-gift annuity, but you have to treat that transfer as an IRA withdrawal and pay the taxes involved.

"There's no advantage to funding it from the IRA," says Natalie Choate , an estate-planning lawyer at Nutter McClennen & Fish LLP in Boston.

But if you are still interested in using your IRA assets to fund a charitable-gift annuity that would provide you with a regular income stream, you would start by making an IRA withdrawal -- taxed as ordinary income. Then you would make a donation to a charity in exchange for fixed annuity payments each year. The American Council on Gift Annuities, an Indianapolis nonprofit, publishes suggested gift-annuity rates by age at acga-web.org/giftrates.html.

You can typically take a tax deduction ranging from 20% to 50% of your donation, depending on your age and other factors. A portion of your annuity payments may be tax-free as well.

One caution: Make sure you are comfortable with the financial strength of the institution backing the annuity. One charity filed for bankruptcy protection earlier this year and donors stopped receiving regular payments for a few months.

There is one way, for this year only, to transfer assets to a charity from an IRA without being taxed. People over age 70½ can donate as much as $100,000 from their IRAs to charities through Dec. 31. The distributions are tax-free. In past years, they counted toward the required minimum distributions IRA owners in that age group had to take. With required withdrawals suspended this year, qualified charitable deductions are "just for people who want a tax-advantaged way to make a gift to charity from their IRA," Ms. Choate says.

But the provision applies "only to transfers that go immediately to the charity, where the IRA owner-donor does not retain any rights or receive any type of payment or compensation from the charity," Ms. Choate says.

The Pension Protection Act of 2006 created "qualified charitable distributions," which originally expired Dec. 31, 2007. But last year's rescue plan for banks renewed the opportunity for charitable giving through Dec. 31, 2009.