Peppers Take Advantage of New IRA Law

Ron Pepper has watched Seminole football since the first kickoff in 1947. Both sides of his family moved to Florida at the turn of the last century. His maternal grandfather owned Mendelson's Department store where Ron worked growing up. After graduating from Leon High in 1951, Ron decided to get away from home, and for a year tried the University of Miami, and University of Florida, before coming to his senses, and returning to FSU. At the insistence of some of his buddies, he enlisted in the Army, where he served in Korea until 1956. He then re-enrolled at FSU and resumed his part time work at the store. It was there that he fell in love with the gift wrapper, Jakie Pearce, a beautiful Tallahassee girl whose father, A.R Pearce was a long time employee of FSU.

Before he could graduate, Ron was offered his dream job as a salesman for Levi Strauss. It seems that Ron never liked the confines of the retail trade, and always envied the salesmen that would call on the store with their fancy cars on their adventuresome travels. For the next 39 years he indeed traveled. He and his family used St. Pete, Charlotte, Miami, New York and Atlanta as bases for his sales career. His last 25 years were in Atlanta as the regional manager over all men's wear/ Dockers. One of his "coolest" sales feats was being #1 in the nation in corduroy jeans sales – all while based in Miami! Ron and Jakie have three children. Two have graduated from FSU, along with their spouses. In all, 13 of the Pepper/Pearce family have attended FSU, and share a passion for the University. From their home in Atlanta, Ron and Jakie will soon celebrate the 50th anniversary of their wedding.

Ron has always been fiscally astute, keeping up with the latest tax laws. Several years ago, he and Jakie updated their estate plan, and included a gift to both Seminole Boosters Inc. and the FSU Foundation, Inc. Last month, Ron read our Booster e-mail article and our Report to Boosters article on the new law that allows donors to gift directly from their IRA. He researched it further, and found that it would benefit him, and allow him to make a gift during his lifetime. For those who missed the article on the new law, here are the highlights:

BASICS OF THE LAW:

It applies only to those age 70½ and older It is only in effect for the calendar years 2006 and 2007 A maximum of $100,000 per year can be gifted from the retirement funds Financial institutions will provide forms to make it easy to gift directly from a retirement fund to charity The gift will satisfy the required minimum distribution for that year The gift will not be included in the donor's gross income, and thus will trigger no income tax.

The donor will not receive a charitable deduction Because Ron's IRA was a substantial portion of his estate, and he knew it would be the most highly taxed asset, it would be a smart move for him to gift a portion of his IRA during his lifetime. The gift will count as an IRA distribution, but not be included as income, and should actually reduce the tax on his Social Security. As important to him and his family, Ron will be able to see his gift help provide a student athlete their college education.