Warren and Carol Thornhill
Discretionary Endowment Fund
This unrestricted fund was established following the death of Warren Ashby Thornhill III on Jan. 2, 2013. Fifteen years earlier, Warren started making an annual donation to BAF so the foundation could purchase a $500,000 life insurance policy on his life. The annual tax-deductible donations for the premium payments were covered by the required distributions from a retirement plan set up years prior by Mr. Thornhill. He intended for the Foundation to be the beneficiary of the retirement plan, but once the minimum distributions began, there would be a reduction in the amount BAF would receive upon his death. Thanks to this strategy, even though as the years went by and his retirement fund was reduced to approximately $50,000, upon his death the Foundation received an additional $500,000 from the life insurance. Warren’s will directed a specific portion of these funds, $250,551.37 from the Life Insurance and $181,936.51 from the IRA, was to be used to establish this new permanent endowment. Additional portions were added to funds previously started by the Thornhills.
