A Gift with Great Returns!

Sometimes a gift can help the giver as well as the recipient. Ralph Shive, class of ’75, has established several charitable gift annuities to honor his favorite professor and support future students, receiving lifetime income and tax savings in return.

Ralph came to SMU from Illinois looking for new experiences as well as a great education. Early in his college career, he took Professor Don Jackson’s finance course and his life took a new direction. Ralph noted that he was just a “longhair” sitting in the back of the class when he first arrived, but Dr. Jackson’s wisdom and passion for investment analysis had him “absolutely hooked.”

“Dr. Jackson took an average student and inspired me to be a successful investor, an ethical business man, husband, father and community volunteer.” Ralph recently established his second gift annuity with SMU, both of which will ultimately benefit the Don Jackson Center for Financial Studies.

Ralph looked at his own portfolio of stocks and selected one that he thought may be at a high. Instead of selling this stock, he transferred it directly to SMU in exchange for a gift annuity which will pay him a locked in rate of return for the rest of his life.

Establishing gift annuities with SMU even helped him and his wife Linda ’75 start the estate planning process. Because of their thoughtful generosity and planning, future generations of SMU students will continue to benefit from what Dr. Jackson started here years ago.