I am deeply grateful to JCYC. It opened my eyes at a very impressionable age.
– Angus MacDonald
Excerpt from JCYC Up Close, July 2010
Angus MacDonald says he owes a lot to JCYC. The 33-year old San Francisco intellectual property attorney hopes his JCYC bequest will help clear the debt some day. He has named JCYC as a beneficiary of his retirement plan. “The plan took a hit recently,” he said. “But I have a long-term view. I’ve been investing the maximum amount each year since I was 26. My guess is JCYC will receive a sizeable gift.”
Now a JCYC board member, his association with the agency began at age six at JCYC’s Tomodachi Summer Day Camp, a relationship repeated every summer for nine years. He graduated from camper to assistant counselor when he was twelve and to counselor when he was fourteen.
MacDonald says JCYC exposed him to ethnic and socio-economic diversity not present at the schools he attended. “It was eye-opening,” he said. “JCYC prides itself on working with all economic groups. It did then, and it does now. I love my schools, but JCYC showed me the multicultural face of the Bay Area.”As a counselor he was mentored twenty years ago by Jon Osaki, JCYC’s current Executive Director, a steady and reliable influence for good. “We kid Jon that he has the same haircut now as he had then,” MacDonald recalled.
A member of the recently formed JCYC planned giving committee, MacDonald’s first task was to ask fellow board members to include JCYC in their estate plans. Before asking them, he did it himself with his retirement plan designation.
Except for Roth IRAs, retirement plans are notoriously bad at transferring wealth to heirs since they are vulnerable to both estate tax and income tax. But they pass tax-free to charities. “This way I can help JCYC, while taking less from our heirs,” MacDonald said.
But the satisfaction he feels has little to do with tax efficiency. “JCYC is all about investing in youth,” he added. “It has great programs serving youth from preschool onward.
But we can’t rely on government grants; we need people to pitch in. That’s why I’m a member of the board and the Legacy Circle.” And he added: “I am deeply grateful to JCYC. It opened my eyes at a very impressionable age.”
MacDonald has a five-year-old daughter, Athena, who will likely be attending JCYC’s Tomodachi Day Camp program next summer.
JCYC is pleased to list Angus MacDonald as a member of JCYC’s Legacy Circle. For Legacy Circle information, please call JCYC at 415-202-7909.
JCYC is pleased to answer your questions about how to start writing or revising your estate plan, making a planned gift to the Japanese Community Youth Council, or establishing a gift that pays you. We are also be happy to tell you about the Japanese Community Youth Council’s Legacy Circle which honors those who have included JCYC in their estate planning.
Call contact us at (415)202-7909 or email josaki@jcyc.org. We want to make sure your questions are answered and your goals met.