Ray Tysor ’21 is remembered as a people person and a natural leader.  He was an Eagle Scout who continued to support the Boy Scouts as an adult.  He was a devoted member of his Methodist church, inspiring the congregation through his tithes and his teaching.  He was a lifelong fan of Duke, a place […]

We are often asked the question: “Can I invest alongside Duke?” The answer is yes! Duke is one of only a handful of universities that has been given permission by the IRS to invest charitable remainder unitrusts (CRTs) in a way that mirrors the university’s endowment investment.  And 2014 was a great year for Duke’s […]

Guest blogger Elizabeth Leverage Hilles’89, Director of Trusts, Estates, and Gift Planning at the University of Virginia’s Law School Foundation and gift planning chair for her 25th Reunion, shares five common estate planning “myths” that can create unintended problems and consequences for you and your family. Myth #1:  Appointing an executor is easy; so is […]

As one goes through life, one collects things that are important at that moment, but later….well…not so much.  Our office receives a call every month or so from donors who purchased a life insurance policy years ago, often when their kids were born (or when they were starting a business). “I bought it to protect […]

Imagine scuba diving 25 miles off the coast of Belize. The ocean floor is 3,000 feet below. In the vast blue sea, a skinny boat line is all that tethers you to humanity. Suddenly, you sense thousands of tiny ocean creatures surrounding you, but you can’t see them. A 9-foot shark approaches from the abyss. […]

Their love story began at a football game with a scream. The setting was Wallace Wade Stadium on a sunny Saturday, September 19, 1970.  Duke was playing Maryland. Jan Tore Hall, a bespectacled rising sophomore, sat next to Ruthann Huling, a sports-loving freshman with golden blonde hair who was spending her first weekend on campus.  […]

A forensic neuropsychologist with three decades of experience, Fisher has spent his career exploring the link between cognition, behavior, and brain damage and, most recently, the underlying reasons why people commit seemingly inexplicable crimes.  His latest book, “Upside Down,” examines what drove a mild-mannered professor to murder his wife. Fisher’s combined interests in understanding the […]

Our Director of Gift Planning, Jeremy Arkin, was recently interviewed by Kiplinger’s Retirement Report for the article, Prepare to Retire with a Gift Annuity. The article focuses on the recent uptick of deferred gift annuities as a retirement tool for younger donors who want to make a charitable gift now, but don’t plan to retire […]

We truly appreciate every prospective donor’s desire to make a gift to Duke University, and hate to turn down any generous offer of support.  However, through years of experience, we have learned that while charitable gifts of appreciated real estate often work well for both the donor and the receiving organization, gifts of timeshare units […]

Ron Nicol M.B.A. ’86 knows the value of a financial helping hand. Having grown up in a family of modest means, he paid for his undergraduate degree at the U.S. Naval Academy with a promise of five years of active duty.  (He actually served seven.) Later, as a young father working in Lynchburg, Virginia, he […]