I had my eye drawn to something interesting in the annuity world. I cant get a lot more info on it as they dont sell it in california yet, but they will be soon.
Consumer Reports takes "Gift Annuities" starting in amounts of $5k and up. The small goodies are a lifetime membership and lifetime subscription are included with any annuity.
They have both deferred and immediate annuities.
One interesting part is that since its a non-profit, you can deduct a little less than half of the annuity 'gift' as a tax deduction, and part of the annuity payment is tax free.
The example they sent me (deferred annuity, currently 43 years of age, start payment at 60, $10,000 'gift'):
Donation:10K
Annuity Rate: 12.4%
Payment: Quarterly
Charitable deduction: 4071
Annuity: 1240 (245 of that tax free for the first 24 years, then its 100% taxable)
The annuity rate goes up more if you're further away from the payment start.
When they offer it in CA I might drop 5-10k into one of these, as Peter says its one more slice of diversity. Would be nice to not get those pesky subscription renewal things any more too
If you're interested, email
rdrucker@consumer.org with your name, address, phone, age and amount you're interested in 'donating'. He'll send you a couple of pages of info on the rates and payment schedules. Took a few weeks for me to get it, but its well detailed info, and I've received no sales calls or other 'pressure' on it.