Twin Pillar of Alumni Support

Bequest and Estate Planning Program Has Taken Its Place Beside Alumni Fund as Asset to College

EXECUTIVE SECRETARY, BEQUEST AND ESTATE PLANNING PROGRAM

THE present official Dartmouth Bequest and Estate Planning Program was conceived in the thirties when John R. McLane '07 single-handedly conducted a program within the Class of 1907. It was advanced in June of 1950 when the Class of 1925, at its 25th reunion, became the first class in the history of the College formally to adopt a bequest program.

In that same month the Alumni Council appointed a "Committee on Bequests" and one year later, in June 1951, it approved the committee's recommendation of a Dartmouth Bequest Program and authorized the immediate activation of a sponsored program. At the outset it was decided that the program should be carried on with Dartmouth classes following their 25th reunions. In those initial years the first publications and booklets dealing with the program were produced, and the first classwide form letters and questionnaires were sent out by the class bequest chairmen. Annual meetings of the class bequest chairmen were integrated with the annual May meetings of all class officers. In May of 1959 the Association of Class Bequest and Estate Planning Chairmen was formed and a constitution adopted. The Association elects a representative to serve on the Alumni Council.

By the very nature of the program it was difficult in the first few years to measure or assess the progress of the program or to tabulate direct results. However, the number of known provisions in favor of the College rose from 125 in 1951 to 460 in 1953, and to 661 in 1956.

In the past eight years proof has emerged that i the program is making steady and definite progress. It will doubtless come as a distinct shock to learn that in the 25 years from 1921 through 1956 the average annual number of new bequests received by the College was only 6.2, and that previous to 1957 Dartmouth had never received more .than twelve new bequests in any one year. By contrast the past eight years show the following record in new realizations:

1957 - 22 1961 - 28 1958 - 21 1962 - 22 1959 - 23 1963 - 14 1960 - 24 1964 - 26

The average for the past eight years is 22.5 or three and a half times the average for the preceding quarter century.

The growth in dollar realizations is equally impressive. The Bequest and Estate Planning Program is concerned not only with testamentary dispositions by will, but also with all types of lifetime dispositions that are of a planned capital-gift nature. The growth in total realizations from the program in the past fifteen years is shown by the climbing lines in the graph below. Translated into actual dollar figures, by five-year periods, total realizations were $2,133,189 for the years 1950-54; then $5,583,649 for the years 1955-59; and $10,370,608 for the years 1960-64, making a grand total of $18,087,446 for the past fifteen years. For these same five-year periods, receipts from bequests alone rose from $1,278,688 to $3,736,980 to $6,944,256, for a grand total of $11,959,924.

The program has produced over $ 1,500,000 in six of the past seven years. Bequest realizations produce between 65% and 70% of the total, but estate planning gifts and receipts are growing at approximately the same pace. The total of gifts subject to life income received in the past fifteen years has crossed the $2,000,000 mark, receipts from trusts in the hands of others have produced over $1,500,000 in the same period, and what may be termed inter vivos giving, deferred giving or estate planned capital giving, has added almost $3,000,000 to the assets of the College.

It should be pointed out that the above total of $18,000,000 is in addition to the $17,500,000 given to the College under the Capital Gifts Campaign and in addition to the $11,860,000 contributed in the last fifteen years to the Alumni Fund.

Indeed, the Alumni Fund and the Bequest and Estate Planning Program have very aptly been called the "Twin pillars of Alumni Support" of Dartmouth. Each is vital in maintaining the College in a position of preeminence.

It is probably true that the remarkable record of about 70% participation achieved year after year by the Alumni Fund may never be equalled in the Bequest and Estate Planning field. Yet it is doubtful that any of the program planners in 1951 would have said that a class approaching its fortieth reunion would be able to report that over 100 of its members have announced that they have made provisions for the College in their estate planning. The Class of 1925 with what might be called 450 active living members has during the past three months passed that mark with 105 known provisions broken down as follows: Outright provisions 70, Contingency provisions 26, Matured provisions 4, Lifetime capital giving provisions - less repeats (net) 5. It is, of course, never possible to estimate with any degree of accuracy the future dollar realizations from such an over-all report. A number of the provisions are. completely without detail, and a number are dependent on certain conditions and circumstances. However, from details known at present, it can reasonably be presumed that Dartmouth will eventually realize between $2,200,000 and $4,000,000-plus from this one class alone.

A few years ago, following a study of all bequests and gifts to Dartmouth over her entire history, it became very evident that the phrase "Women of Dartmouth" was a significant factor in any study of benefactions to the College. It will doubtless come as a surprise to the Men of Dartmouth that in the past fifty years women have made 27.8% of the total number of bequests to the College and have given 24.7% of the total dollars from bequests., These figures are for bequests alone. In addition, in lifetime giving (not including gifts to the Alumni Fund or the Capital Gifts campaign) Dartmouth women have given over $1,368,000 to the College, with most of this coming in the past ten years.

We earlier stated that in 1956 our records showed 661 known provisions in favor of the College. As of October of this year the figure had grown to approximately 1400. There are approximately 30,300 living alumni of whom some 13,000 have passed their 25th reunions and are consequently embraced by the Bequest and Estate Planning Program. Deducting the number of matured bequests from the total of 1400 known provisions we find that almost 10% of the living alumni have now made provisions for Dartmouth. As other classes approach the 20% mark already established by one Dartmouth class the 1400 total may well double in the coming decade.

As of a year ago approximately 1,000 additional men and women had signified that they "planned" or "hoped" to make provision in the future. Not all of these may turn into expectancies, but certainly a goodly number will.

The Board of Trustees is engaged at present in an extensive over-all study of the entire Development Program and of all present organizations functioning under that program. Under the Trustees Planning Committee, a Bequest and Estate Planning Study Committee of eight men has just made a report after study and work covering a period of eighteen months. One part of this report is based on a study of bequest programs, either in operation or contemplated, covering more than a score of our sister institutions. The survey proves, rather conclusively, that the Dartmouth program is among the top four or five in the country in planning, in operations, and in effectiveness.

Additional proof of this seems to be found in the fact that in the past four years Dartmouth has twice received one of the prizes annually awarded by the American Alumni Council for creditable achievement in promotion of bequest and estate planning programs.

A summary of the receipts for the fiscal year ended June 30, 1964, shows the following: Bequest realizations (actual receipts) $660,404, Capital giving - Estate planning - Life insurance $610,435, Receipts from trusts in the hands of others $148,292, Gifts establishing life income trusts $119,929, Total $1,539,060.

The present fiscal year gives promise of fine results. Over $415,000 in bequest realizations was credited in the first quarter of the fiscal year. The twelve new bequests received constituted the largest number ever received in a three-month period. In the same quarter, five new life income trusts, totalling $83,880, were established. Approximately $150.000 additional was credited in estate-planned gifts and receipts.

The alumni body, men and women of Dartmouth alike, may well take pride in the outstanding growth in the past fifteen years in the field of testamentary and lifetime provisions which have been established to assure the future of the College.

This is the first of the annual reports on the Bequest and Estate Planning Program that we plan to present regularly in the fall in future years. In opening the series this first report seeks to provide some helpful background by covering the past fifteen years of the program as well as the immediate past year. During that period a variety of promotional pieces were prepared, and recent editions of the following are available upon request: 1. Philanthropic Estate Planning. 2. Dartmouth Memorial Gifts and Bequests. 3. Your Life Insurance and Dartmouth. 4. Dartmouth Bequest and Estate Planning flyers, dealing with: (a) Wills in general, (b) Contingency Bequests, (c) Life Income Trusts, (d) Modest Gifts and Bequests, (e) Women-of-Dartmouth, (f) Intimate Views of the Program. 5. Various statistical memoranda on: (a) Bequests, by Class; (b) Life Income Trusts, by Class; (c) Total Known Giving Records, by Class; (d) Dartmouth's Largest Benefactors; (e) Examples of Provisions made in the name of Dartmouth. Any of the above will be sent on your request without obligation of any sort addressed to: FORD H. WHELDEN, Executive Secretary, Bequest Program, 305 Crosby Hall, Hanover, N. H. JOHN F. MECK, Treasurer, Dartmouth College, 204 Parkhurst Hall, Hanover, N. H. Your Bequest and Estate Planning Chairman, or your Class president.