Katy’s report to 日報: National Taiwan University Alumni Luncheon at Pittsburgh

Katy’s dispatch to the World Journal (世界日報) reporting the National Taiwan University (NTU) Alumni Holiday Luncheon was published today (Dec. 15).  It was held at Monroeville City Buffet on December 11.  The initially scheduled speaker was 許倬雲, the faculty member (院士) of Academia Sinica (中央研究院), who was unfortunately not at his best health and unable to attend the luncheon that day.  The arrangement was made to obtain a new speaker, Charlie Chian (簡豐源), who is a NTU alumnus with a Bachelor of Arts in Law degree.

(You may read directly online)

http://www.worldjournal.com/view/wjnjpanews/16789888/article-%E5%8C%B9%E8%8C%B2%E5%A0%A1%E5%8F%B0%E5%A4%A7%E6%A0%A1%E5%8F%8B%E6%9C%83%E8%81%9A%E9%A4%90?instance=nj2

 

Chen’s topic is about the Long Term Care Insurance.  He pointed out many things worthy of attention and emphasized that the insurance company selected has to be state-approved.  He jokingly said that thing would be simple and easy if one is poor; the state will take care of the poor as long as one’s asset or bank deposit is less than $2,000, otherwise one would have to pay all the expenses.

He reminds every one of the importance of designating beneficiaries for the pension and life insurance.  It has to be clear and exact, such as writing the specific names, instead of “children”.  He suggested asking for POD (payable-on-death) for bank accounts and TOD (transfer-on-death) for stocks and brokerage accounts as well as joint tenancy with right of survivorship.

Living trust is more complicated.  Each individual can give $13,000 to each of his or her children or even relatives or friends.  It is not advisable to give away the money too soon.  Chen mentioned an example.  Mr. so and so gave money to his married daughter who died in a car accident; the money went to the surviving son-in-law, who remarried and also met his accidental death.  The money went to his widow; the result is none of the grand children of Mr. so and so will get any money.  Setting trust would be the solution, the more trustees the better.

NTU is a national university, its tuition is traditionally lower than that of private universities.  In order to fund the scholarship and keep the world class teaching faculty, the university has been fund raising asking each alumnus to donate $100 every year to 「台大永續基金」。「百元美金，台大躍進。三千細水，台大長流」is the fund raising slogan.  This effort will propel NTU into the World Top 100 Universities.

In order to promote and strengthen the contact between the university and alumni, the university encourages the alumni to apply for Alumni Card (台大校友證), with which the alumni can enjoy the resource and various benefits of the university.  For further information, please visit http://www.ntu.edu.tw . (Katy Tsai, 張瓊月)

(the following is Katy’s dispatch)

匹茲堡台大校友會聚餐

【賓州匹茲堡訊】 世界新聞網 北美華文新聞、華商資訊

December 15, 2011 06:00 AM 

匹茲堡台灣大學校友會日前在夢諾維爾的市區饗廳（Monroville City Buffet）聚餐。原計畫邀請中央研究院院士許倬雲演講「國際風雲」，由於高齡80的許倬雲身體違和，不克出席，臨時改由台灣大學法律系校友簡豐源演講。

簡豐源演講主題是「購買美國老人的長期照顧保險注意事項」。他指出，最主要的是不管買那一家的保險，都必須注意是向該州有認證旳保險公司購買。如果沒有錢，反而簡單，如果銀行存款只有2000元，政府將補助長期照顧。如果有錢就只要自己付費。

他 提醒大家注意退休金、人壽保險的受益人，要清楚註明，避免日後被清算付稅。他建議可到銀行把存款帳號免費做 POD（payable-on-death），還有股票帳號做 TOD（transfer-on-death）。兩人聯名的帳戶，如果一方死亡，就直接全部歸屬另一人。

簡 豐源說生存信託（living trust）就比較複雜。每人每年可以給子女或親友1萬3000元，但必須報所得稅時有紀錄才行。不要太早把錢分給子女。他舉例，某人把錢分給女兒，女兒 意外死亡變成女婿的錢，女婿再婚後又出意外，錢財落到遺孀手上，親外孫反而拿不到錢。所以他提議最好為可能喪偶的家人或小孩預先設立信託基金，多找幾位信 託人。

目前因為台大是公立大學，向學生收取學費比其他私立大學低廉很多。為確保能多發獎學金及保持世界一流教學品質，希望校友響應每人每年「百元美金，台大躍進。三千細水，台大長流」，支持台大進入世界百大，捐款贊助「台大永續基金」。

另外為了加強學校與畢業校友之間的連絡，方便校友共享學校資源，台大歡迎辦理台大校友證，憑證可享受各種優惠。詳情可上網查詢 http://www.ntu.edu.tw。（張瓊月)