At a gathering in May at the New York City Harvard Club, alumni with distinguished careers in law and finance rose to extol the virtues of "planned giving." That refers, among other things, to schemes in which you transfer assets to your alma mater while taking back a lifetime income. When you do this, the testimonial givers said, you support a great institution. Also, you can get a 5% payout-"pretty good these days." The audience of aging plutocrats warmed to the pitch, appealing as it did at once to their sense of noblesse oblige and their thirst for income.
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