Meet Our Donors
We thank all our planned-gift donors for their generous support. Here are some of their stories.
Sherman Leis, DO'67
Sherman Leis, DO'67, plastic surgeon, musician, medical school faculty member, and philanthropist has included PCOM in his estate plans. "I am very involved in many different charitable organizations. One way of helping them today is to express my belief in them by leaving them a bequest in my will. I know that PCOM will be here producing excellent doctors in the decades to come. My estate planning is an affirmation of that belief."
Martin S. Neifeld, DO 1946
Martin S. Neifield, DO 1946 maintained a surgical practice for 40 years in addition to serving on the PCOM faculty for 5 years. "PCOM has provided me and my family the ability to enjoy a comfortable and fulfilling lifestyle. I was happy to establish my second annuity this year as part of my 65th reunion. This time, Bernice and I established an annuity that will continue to the survivor, after one of us passes away. This permitted many benefits:
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It provided financial support for PCOM.
- Because I funded the annuity with appreciated stock, I avoided paying tax on the stock's capital gains.
- I used the contribution to PCOM as a charitable deduction.
- The annuities will provide a guaranteed lifetime income for Bernice and me.
What a great trifecta, plus one!"
Dr. and Mrs. Murry E. Levyn
"I was delighted to find that PCOM has an annuity program," says Murry E. Levin, DO'46. "Every quarter I receive a check that adds to my income while helping to ensure the future of the College. What could be better?"
DR. FREDERIC H. BARTH, DSc (Hon.), LLD (Hon.) SCHOLARSHIP
This Scholarship was established by a bequest from the estate of Dr. Barth who was President of the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine from 1956 to 1974, and also the first Chancellor of the College until his death in 1976. Under Dr. Barth's leadership, PCOM purchased the Moss estate on City Avenue for a new college and hospital. He successfully appealed to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania to support the construction of the college and hospital with the College's first state grant. Dr. Barth also expanded the College's community healthcare clinics to include rural Sullivan County (Laporte), Pennsylvania. A businessman and educator, Dr. Barth held appointments from U.S. Presidents Eisenhower (who appointed him acting Philadelphia Postmaster) and Nixon (who appointed him to the UN Delegation on Human Rights). The Barth bequest came to the College following the passing of Mrs. Barth in 2004. The $750,000 bequest has grown to $855,000 in the College's endowment and averages $41,000 a year in scholarships to financially needy DO students.
Justin
I bought a lot of life insurance when our family was young. Wanted to be sure that Bev and our children would be taken care of should anything unexpected happen to me.
Well, I’m still around, thank goodness. Our children are grown and settled, and Bev and I did a little better financially than we ever thought would be possible when we were starting out. Truth is, our family no longer needed all the life insurance coverage I was carrying for them.
That excess insurance was really an asset that was no longer productive for us. We talked about it with our accountant, and she said that we could donate some policies to our favorite charity – PCOM. We would receive an income tax deduction approximately equal to the cash surrender value of the policies, which would come in very handy at tax time.
PCOM could either cash in the policies and use the funds for current projects, or hold them for the death benefits they will pay when we die.
It was a win-win result: we were able to help PCOM out significantly, but we did it by using assets we had almost forgotten about, and in a way that didn’t affect our cash-flow or our family’s security.
Tom & Wilma
We wanted to make a gift to PCOM in addition to our annual support – a commitment that would make a lasting impact on the organization our whole family loves.
But how to do it? We can’t afford to give away large sums while we’re alive, and our children are counting on receiving most of our estate. Our financial advisor came up with the creative solution. He had been looking over the annual statements from Tom’s and my IRAs and retirement plans.
“There will be more than adequate distributions available from these plans after you retire to maintain your lifestyle and enjoy yourselves a little bit,” he told us. “In fact, I’ll probably be advising you to minimize your withdrawals and keep the accounts growing.
“But, did you know that any balance remaining in those plans when the second of you dies could be taxed twice if you leave the accounts to your children through your will? That’s right – the balances could be subject to both estate and income tax. Your children could wind up with a lot less than you’re expecting them to get.”
His plan? Designate PCOM as the recipient of all or a portion of the remaining balance in our retirement plans. That transfer will be subject to neither estate nor income tax, resulting in a substantial gift to PCOM. We were then able to allocate the other assets in our estate to our children, knowing that they can take them free of the double tax that applies to retirement accounts.
The result for us? We solved an estate-planning problem we didn’t even know we had, and found a way to provide long-term support for our favorite institution.
