An unlikely billionaire willed $13 million to charity when he died, but did not specify the intended recipient of the pile of cash, leaving his lawyers to try to give it away.
The lawyer’s method caused some organizations to think it was a scam, and they lost an unusual piece of will.
Indianapolis resident Terry Kahn, a 30-year employee of the Veterans Administration, died in 2021 with no immediate family to leave his estate.
Kahn said in his will that it should be donated to “charity,” but failed to specify any specific organizations he supported.
Kahn’s lawyer, Dwayne Isaacs, told CBS News Kahn was “very frugal,” and didn’t even own a cell phone because he thought it was too expensive.
After his client died, Isaacs was tasked with calling dozens of local nonprofits and essentially offering them millions.
“Maybe three or four different entities that lost because they didn’t take my call,” Isaacs told the outlet.
The late Terry Kahn left his $13 million estate to charity. CBS’s Terry Kahn dies in 2021, leaving $13 million to unspecified “charities.” CBS
A nonprofit official who took his call recalled hearing Isaacs’ startling question.
“The first thing he said was, ‘What are you going to do with $1 million?'” recalls Emmy Hildebrand, CEO of Helping Veterans and Families of Indiana.
He was not alone in being taken aback by the call.
Margaret Sheehan, executive director of Teachers’ Treasures, a free store for educators in need of classroom supplies, was gifted $1.5 million, about twice the group’s annual budget
Attorney Dwayne Isaacs was the executor of Kahn’s will and donated millions to nonprofits. CBS “Maybe three or four different entities that lost because they didn’t take my call,” Isaacs told the outlet. CBS
“It was such an amazing act of kindness that I replied, ‘I have to sit down,'” Sheehan said.
“We were hovering over our own bodies, thinking, like, is this real?” another recipient, Julie Henson, vice president of development for Coburn Place, which supports domestic violence survivors, told the outlet.
According to Isaacs, Kahn lives in a modest home, drives an old Honda, and asks that when he passes no money be spent on obituaries.
“He’s smiling somewhere, there’s no doubt about it,” Isaacs told the outlet. “He’ll get a kick out of this.”
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
