A two-day Conference on Wills, Annuities, and Special Gifts in 1952 sponsored by the National Council of Churches attracted 387 gift planners to Cincinnati, Ohio, representing local and national church groups, hospitals and retirement homes, colleges, Goodwill Industries, American Friends Service Committee, World Literacy, the YWCA and YMCA. The agenda included a presentation on “Tax Aspects of Giving” by Sydney Prerau, and sessions on marketing and administering charitable trusts, annuities, bequests, retained life estates, and gifts of life insurance. Prerau’s presentation was wide ranging, analyzing the after-tax costs of gifts of cash, stock, and real estate; gifts of life insurance; gift annuities and life income trusts; and lead trusts.
Prerau represented the J.K. Lasser Tax Institute at the 1952 conference. Jacob Kay Lasser had published How Tax Laws Make Giving to Charity Easy (1948) and was co-author of Tax Planning for Foundations and Charitable Giving (1953). Prerau became head of the Tax Institute in 1954, became Conrad Teitell’s mentor in 1959, and made him a partner of the planned giving firm Prerau & Teitell in 1964. Philip T. Temple, a classmate of Teitell’s at Columbia Law School, joined the firm in 1967. Sydney Prerau died in 1968.
Gift Planning History 