Gates family gives $5 billion in stock
Bill and Melinda Gates gave $5 billion worth of Microsoft stock to their private foundation, the William H. Gates Foundation, in June. This gift doubled the size of their foundation to just over $10 billion, making it fourth in the country’s top philanthropies in terms of asset holdings.
Bill Gates’ father, William H. Gates, Sr., runs the Gates Foundation. Mr. Gates, Sr., said the reason for the large donation was simple—his son wanted to give away more money to continue the Foundation’s work. The Foundation plans to increase the number of grants it awards in order to put the extra funds to good use.
In addition, the Foundation office is moving to new office space in Seattle. Until now, the Foundation has been operating out of the basement of the home of Mr. Gates, Sr.
Source: The Chronicle of Philanthropy, June 17, 1999
IRA stats reflect growing retirement assets
According to statistics from the Employee Benefits Research Institute, IRA assets totaled $2.1 trillion in 1998. That figure represents over a three-fold increase from $636 billion in 1990. Mutual funds accounted for the largest portion of this total—growing from $140 billion in 1990 to $934 billion last year. Brokerage accounts came in second with IRA holdings of $724 billion. Bank and thrift deposits fell from $266 billion in 1990 to $249 billion in 1998, while life insurance companies grew from $53 billion to $196 billion respectively. For gift planners, the news here is that it will be increasingly important to emphasize the importance of providing for charitable remainders from retirement plans in addition to traditional emphasis on bequests by will and other means of distributing assets to charitable interests at death.
Source: USA TODAY, June 11, 1999
