Starting Retirement, Shaping Tomorrow

“I've always wanted to give back. Especially as we got into our retirement years, we realized we've been fortunate enough to have done fairly well and we want to share that,” says Evelyn Eng, ’81. “I went on a journey to figure it out and (asked myself), ‘Where do I want to leave it?’”

Eng grew up in Kalihi, a neighborhood on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, and didn’t have college in mind until her high school counselor encouraged her to apply. With the financial support of scholarships at Seattle University, Eng was able to attend her first year of college tuition-free as a first-generation student. Graduating with a degree in accounting from the Albers School of Business and Economics she had a successful career working at companies like Expedia, Darigold and PACCAR.

But for Eng, the value of her SU education went beyond her education in accounting and business.

“One of the compliments I received most in my career was my ability to think globally.  I was able to see the big picture and the impact beyond just the business need,” Eng says. “I feel that came from my liberal arts education, especially my philosophy classes.”

Along with her husband she has given back to SU over the years by contributing to the Albers Dean’s Fund. Already a mentor to Albers students Eng, now a couple years into retirement, wanted to find a way to support both SU and students from Hawai’i like herself.

“One of the events in our life that made us push faster toward making sure we take care of this was our niece unexpectedly dying at 48,” says Eng. “I realized then that life is not certain. We want to leave things for our daughter, as well as to make sure our estate goes out and helps other people when we’re gone.”

In thinking about legacy giving, Eng was inspired by Gary’s legacy plans to give back to his alma mater, Washington State University. Gary worked for more than 30 years at the University of Washington’s Real Estate Office and was closely engaged with Gift Planning, focused on gifts of real estate. Moving forward, Gary is volunteering to share his expertise with SU’s Gift Planning team to advise on real estate charitable giving.

“Managing the donated real estate portfolio was my favorite aspect of my job as every property was different and every donor comes from different backgrounds,” Gary says. “As part of our estate planning, we want to help both our alma maters and students in need.”

In conversations with their financial advisor and SU’s Gift Planning team, Eng discovered the value of starting to give earlier rather than later.

“At 70 1/2, you can donate directly out of your IRA and it has no tax impact. Another thing that impacted a change in our strategy was realizing when we turn 73, we’re required to take money out of our IRAs beyond our planned living expenses,” Eng says. “So that’s when I thought, ‘let’s figure out how we can start donating now.’”

With guidance from SU’s Gift Planning team on strategic legacy giving, the Engs decided to establish the Riingen-Eng Ohana Endowed Scholarship supporting first-generation Albers students from Hawaii. They will use their IRA Qualified Charitable Distribution to launch and grow the fund in their lifetime and have added Seattle University as a percent beneficiary from their IRA as part of their estate plan.

“It’s a good way for me to give back to Hawaii, to students of need there, and give them the opportunity to get the benefits I received at SU.  It is also a good way to give back to SU for the solid college education and experience," Eng says. “In working with SU’s Gift Planning team I saw the value of starting donations now where we can see how people are benefitting from it.”