“Methuselah” trusts

[oddlots]

Hmmmm, only part way through but worth a read. Wonder what Hudson would say.

Hartwick College didn’t really mean to annihilate the U.S. economy. A small liberal-arts school in the Catskills, Hartwick is the kind of sleepy institution that local worthies were in the habit of founding back in the 1790s; it counts a former ambassador to Belize among its more prominent alumni, and placidly reclines in its berth as the number-174-ranked liberal-arts college in the country. But along with charming buildings and a spring-fed lake, the college once possessed a rather more unusual feature: a slumbering giant of compound interest.

http://www.laphamsquarterly.org/essa...s.php?page=all

[Slimprofits]

Re: “Methuselah” trusts

Is that how the Franklin Institute of Technology in Boston got it's start?

[lektrode]

Re: “Methuselah” trusts

looks like it: http://www.bfit.edu/About/default.aspx
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjami..._of_Technology

just imagine what ole uncle ben would think (about) today...

The notion of a “Methuselah” trust has a long history—and as with many peculiar notions, Benjamin Franklin got there first. Upon his death in 1790, Franklin’s will contained a peculiar codicil setting aside £1,000 (about $4,550) each for the cities of Boston and Philadelphia to provide loans for apprentices to start their businesses. The money was to be invested at compound interest for one hundred years, then a portion of the fund was to be used in Boston for a trade school. For Philadelphia, he recommended using the money for “bringing, by pipes, the water of Wissahickon Creek into the town”—or perhaps “making the Schuylkill completely navigable.” The whole scheme was perfectly suited for a man who once half-jokingly proposed that, in preference “to any ordinary death” he be “immersed in a cask of Madeira wine” for later revival, as he had “a very ardent desire to see and observe the state of America a hundred years hence.”

[globaleconomicollaps]

Re: “Methuselah” trusts

I am struck by the legal arguments that ultimately brought down these trusts. The idea that because the trusts might in future become big enough to influence policy makers, therefore they should be liquidated, sounds like a patently unconstitutional spin. Certainly big money influences politics. Write your congressman. As far as I am concerned the money was stolen. I just read that the Unitarian church misappropriated one of the funds that was intended to benefit poor people in India. The take home : spend it now because after you are gone the wolves will tear it apart.

[wayiwalk]

Re: “Methuselah” trusts

I'd say unless you have active family members acting on your behalf to make sure the intent of the trust is still being followed, those with a will will find a way to take it away. I'm reminded of this case:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barnes_Foundation

Not the best description of the legal issues, but it does get the poitn across.