Charitable Remainder Trust Offers Many Benefits and Options
Attorney and Ball State benefactor J. Richard Emens wanted options.
Seeking a way to supplement his family scholarship, the Emens Scholars program, he also wanted to create a safety net for himself and his wife, Beatrice, for their retirement years. A charitable remainder trust was the answer.
A charitable remainder trust is a custom-designed and individually managed trust that enables you to retain an income for your lifetime or a fixed term of years, claim a current income tax deduction, and make a future gift to Ball State.
Emens, a partner with Emens & Wolper Law Firm, Columbus, Ohio, says he was attracted to the numerous benefits this planned gift offers and the ease in setting up the gift agreement through the Ball State University Foundation. He has elected to contribute the annual income normally received by the beneficiaries back into the trust to increase the fund and generate a greater ultimate remainder for the Emens Scholars program after he and his wife pass.
"Adding funds to the trust, which will eventually go to the scholarship, is my way of paying tribute to my parents who contributed 46 combined years of service to the university," says Emens.
Emens' father, John Emens, served as president of Ball State from 1945 to 1968, a period when the campus grew phenomenally and the institution's name was appropriately changed from Ball State Teachers College to Ball State University. The Emens Scholars program recognizes outstanding student leaders and encourages recipients to continue to develop their leadership skills at Ball State.
With retirement on the horizon, Emens said he likes the flexibility a charitable remainder trust offers. "Our charitable remainder trust provides a way to give back - with options," he says. "We can reinvest the income to increase the principal or we can choose to keep it. When we retire, the income will be there if we need it."
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Follow your passion with a gift to the Ball State University Foundation. Contact D. Mark Helmus at 765-285-8312 or [email protected] for details.
The information on this website is not intended as legal or tax advice. For such advice, please consult an attorney or tax advisor. Figures cited in examples are for illustrative purposes only. References to tax rates include federal taxes only and are subject to change. State law may further impact your individual results.