Gift & Estate Planning

The Gift That Keeps on Giving: Donor Honors Dogs and Gives Back to UGA

By Tracy Giese

Linda Oakley has loved dogs her entire life. When it came time for estate planning and will creation, she knew she wanted to do something that would benefit the lovable creature.

"Despite spending most of my adult life in Florida, I have always thought of Georgia as home," says Linda (B.A. '66), who now lives in St. Augustine, Fla., with her husband and a Goldendoodle (golden retriever and poodle cross) named Georgia. "The University of Georgia helped mold me. I wanted to pay back my school and provide a lasting gift for animals, my lifelong passion. Funding scholarships for future vets at UGA's College of Veterinary Medicine was a logical way to benefit animals—dogs in particular."

Linda set up a $1 million charitable remainder trust through her estate plan that will establish the Linda Oakley Endowment Fund, a scholarship for veterinary students in small-animal medicine and surgery who demonstrate financial need.

"By setting up a charitable remainder trust, I have insured income for my husband should he outlive me and have directed where my assets will ultimately reside," she explains. "It was an easy process working with Kathy Bangle in the Development Office at the College of Veterinary Medicine, and my attorney."

In addition, Linda also created a charitable gift annuity with UGA. "There was both a logical and an emotional aspect to that decision. Diversification of one's investment portfolio makes perfect sense, and I viewed that decision as a means of expanding the fixed income component of my assets. Perhaps more important to me, though, was an emotional need to honor my dog Carson who died three years ago. I adopted her from the Cobb County Humane Society and loved her for 14 years. I am hoping her name will be on one of the rooms of the new Veterinary Teaching Hospital. Mary McCormack in UGA's Gift & Estate Planning office provided tremendous assistance and made the process of establishing a charitable gift annuity very easy," she says.

"A charitable gift annuity is a simple, contractual agreement between a donor and the UGA Foundation in which you give assets to us in exchange for our promise to pay one or two annuitants payments for life," says Mary, assistant director of gift and estate planning.

Charitable remainder trusts and gift annuities provide you and another person you name with income for life. You also receive current income tax savings from a charitable deduction and avoidance of up-front capital gains taxes. After your lifetime and that of other named recipients, the remaining balance of the assets pass to the organizations of your choice.

Linda adds, "It's a small way to give back for all the pleasure and love dogs have showered on me all my life, while also helping the College of Veterinary Medicine and the University of Georgia."

The information in this Web site is not intended as legal advice. For legal advice, please consult an attorney. Figures cited in examples are for hypothetical purposes only and are subject to change. References to estate and income tax include federal taxes only. Individual state taxes and/or state law may impact your results.