One Gift Annuity to go. . . Hold the Headaches, Double the Income

Tony and Mary Ann Kopczynski never had a lot of money, but for more than a decade they were rolling in dough. That’s because in 1985 the couple purchased and ran Pizza Plus, a small pizza manufacturing business in McKees Rocks.

“For 25 years, I was district sales manager at General Foods,” said Tony. “Then, Phillip Morris bought out the company and gave me the choice of relocating to Cleveland or unemployment. Since we would never leave Pittsburgh, I negotiated a silver parachute.”

At the time, daughter Judy was married and living in Virginia, son Tony was a successful electrical engineer at PPG Industries in Pittsburgh, and the severance package made it possible for the couple to pursue the dream of owning their own business.

Now it just so happened at that time, the family of their son’s friend was thinking about selling its McKees Rocks pizza manufacturing business. Buying the business interested Tony, but Mary Ann was skeptical. So Tony worked at the company for three months without pay to get a feel for the business.

“Originally, I was opposed to the idea,” said Mary Ann, “but we found a good lawyer and CPA who showed us how we could build the business if we were willing to work hard.”

The Kopczynskis welcomed hard work and had business experience. Mary Ann had been a bookkeeper for Allegheny Plywood prior to becoming a fulltime homemaker. Tony knew sales and their son’s knowledge of electrical engineering would prove invaluable in the plant.

With all that going for them, the Kopczynskis decided to buy the business. In a few years, Pizza Plus, competing with national companies, doubled its sales by providing a quality product and excellent service.

When health issues led to retirement, no buyers could be found who shared the Kopczynski’s enthusiasm for their business. That’s when they decided to sell their plant and office building and dissolve the business. Enter Landmarks.

“While the property was not of architectural or historic significance, it met Landmarks’ need for additional storage space,” said Landmarks’ president Arthur Ziegler. “There was also office space we could use or lease.”

Because of the mutual benefits it offers, Landmarks proposed accepting the buildings as gifts to fund a charitable gift annuity. In other words, in return for the property, Landmarks would pay the couple a fixed annual income for as long as either of them lives.

Based on their ages, 6.3% of the value of the Kopczynskis’ gifted property will annually be direct-deposited to their checking account in quarterly payments and they will receive a significant current federal charitable income tax deduction for the gift portion of the property transfer.
So where do the Kopczynski’s go from here?

“We’re going to become snowbirds,” said Mary Ann. “We’ll stay in Florida during the winter, then return to Pittsburgh for the rest of the year. We could never totally leave Pittsburgh. We were born here, met here, refused to relocate, and plan to be buried here. We just love this town.”

“I feel good about the gifts we made over the years to support our nonprofit customers,” said Tony. “Now, this gift to Landmarks not only allows us to give something back to the community that gave us so much, but it relieves our stress while providing retirement income.”

Mary Ann added: “Really, Landmarks was the answer to our prayers.”

In short, when it its comes to our donors, Landmarks delivers.

For information on how a planned gift can help you and support Landmarks’ mission, please contact: Jack Miller , Director of Gift Planning at 412-471-5808, ext 538.