The Older You Are – The Better it Gets!

"When I first decided to move to Palm Springs two years ago, I was above all enchanted by the weather – anything but the damp cold winters of Mid-Atlantic Delaware or its hot and very humid summers.

The Palm Springs Art Museum was a revelation after having been a Winterthur Museum and Gardens member, and knowing well the Delaware Art Museum with its peerless Pre-Raphaelite, Howard Pyle and John Sloan collections (its focus; however, is not primarily on contemporary art).  But our museum is something else!

I was admitted to the docent training program, superbly taught and run by Glenn Wilhite and Robert Brasier, which is demanding. Above all, it offers a degree of cultural enrichment that was unanticipated, opening as it did to me the entire world of contemporary art.

Last year, having some funds that I wanted to invest, I could think of no better place than the museum. Nowadays, interest rates and dividend levels certainly discourage investment in CDs, savings accounts and the stock market - but for seniors like me, age 70 or older, who would also like to leave money to the museum, the ideal solution could well be a Charitable Gift Annuity.

Let me use my own example. I created my Gift Annuity first of all because my rate of return, guaranteed for life, is 6.40%. I received a charitable tax deduction of 45% of the amount invested. In addition, 75% of the semi-annual payment that I receive is tax free for 11 years. On my death, the remainder comes to this museum.