GIFT PLANNING
Ginny Sillers learns a better to give an IRA
I
n 2007, Ginny and Don Sillers set
up a significant estate gift for Baylor
Health Care System by naming
Baylor Hea lt h Ca re System
Foundation a beneficiary of Don’s Individual
Retirement Account (IRA). This estate gift
was in thanks for Ginny’s physicians and
other caregivers who saved her life in 1989
when she received a liver transplant at Baylor
Annette C. and Harold C. Simmons
Transplant Institute at Baylor University
Medical Center at Dallas. According to their
plan, upon their deaths, $500,000 from the
IRA would be distributed to the Foundation
in support of Baylor’s transplant program.
Don especially liked the IRA gift idea.
Always the astute businessman, he knew
that leaving IRA proceeds to their children
had a down side: the children would have
to pay income taxes on the remaining balance in the IRA account. This tax would
be in addition to estate taxes that could be
imposed on that account. As a result, as
much as 65 percent of the IRA proceeds
could pass to the government, not their
children. Naming the Foundation, a qualified charity, as beneficiary meant the
Foundation would not pay income tax on
the gift. Instead, the full amount would be
designated for Baylor at the Sillers’ X] ˂