The Charitable Split

摘要

In the late 1990s charitable re-mainder unitrusts were widely promoted―by charities and financial advisers alike―as a sure way for folks sitting on highly appreciated assets to save on taxes, create a steady income stream for themselves and help their favorite charities to boot. Between 1998 and 2000 the number of CRUTs jumped 30% to 84,200, while assets in them grew 38% to $88.5 billion. The pitch was this: A donor can put appreciated stock into the CRUT and take back for himself (or someone else) an annual payout equal to a percentage (say, 7%) of the value of the trust each year. Assuming the CRUT posts more than 7% a year in income and appreciation combined―and everyone seemed to assume it would―the corpus of the trust grows, meaning both the annual 7% payout and charity's eventual take grow, too. (In a "remainder" trust, charity gets what's left when the payout beneficiary dies or after a set number of years.)