When Wake Forest representatives encouraged me to consider a planned gift, they didn't have to ask a second time.
It just made sense to me. I was a financial planner for 26 years, and I'm just practicing what I preached to my clients once qualified charitable distributions became available in 2006. If you are charitably inclined and are making gifts each year, it makes sense to look first at a direct transfer from your IRA once you turn 70 and a half.
A similar commitment and its associated membership in the Samuel Wait Legacy Society may be of even greater benefit in coming years because of tax legislation passed by Congress in December 2017. Tax deductions on some charitable gifts are harder to obtain, but planned gifts - including IRA qualified charitable distributions - have a clear tax benefit because they mitigate income in real time.
This works well for me and for my wife, Betty Lewis Richwine ('65, P '92, P '93). We are looking forward to a life of retirement in Winston-Salem. Among our points of pride these days are our grandchildren Carlyle and Griffin Lowe and daughters Kristi Lowe ('92) and Jennifer Richwine ('93), the executive director of the University's acclaimed center in Washington, D.C.
We know we're not major donors, but we understand all gifts are important. We've continued to give because we have continued to have contact with faculty, students and staff and have been impressed by them.
