Every day, a Stanford connection

Kent Kaiser, ’59, was serving in the Navy when his ship arrived in Hong Kong. A stranger on the pier asked if anyone aboard was a Stanford graduate. When three alumni emerged, the man treated them all to dinner.

It’s like that everywhere you go. It’s a very close-knit community.
— Kent Kaiser

Five years ago, Kaiser chose to honor his lifelong connection with the Stanford community by establishing a charitable remainder unitrust. He says he was drawn to making a planned gift as a way to support several different Stanford programs.

“The gift will go to three places that mean a lot to me,” he says, adding to an existing athletics scholarship, the Hoover Institution, and the bone marrow transplant unit at Stanford Hospital.

Aside from benefiting Stanford, this kind of gift has multiple benefits: Assets in the trust grow tax-free. The trust provides income payments to Kaiser for life. And he was eligible for an immediate tax deduction for a portion of the value of the assets transferred to the trust.

“Financially, it’s a good deal,” Kaiser explains. “You get income, you support Stanford, and your gift grows when the endowment grows.” In Kaiser’s case, the trust is also managed by the Stanford Management Company alongside Stanford’s endowment.

Kaiser says for him, a planned gift was another way to give back to the Stanford community that has meant so much to him over the years. He has been involved as a class volunteer for six decades and lives in a retirement complex with former classmates and many people with Stanford connections. Several of his family members have also attended Stanford.

Today, when he’s not attending a lecture or playing golf on the Stanford Golf Course, he and his wife, Linda, can be found at a performance in Bing Concert Hall or at a Stanford athletics event.

“Every day, there is a Stanford connection,” he says.