Estate of Flora Woods Norwood

Flora Norwood was a widow who had a great love for Samford University. She appreciated the Christian values that were the foundation of everything about Samford and wanted to say so through a gift from her estate at her death.

As Flora considered re-writing her will, her attorney asked the appropriate questions about the assets she owned. When Flora told him her wishes for a bequest to Samford, he recommended that Flora's EE U.S. savings bonds be specified for the gift to Samford. Why? He knew that bondholders typically do not pay tax on accrued interest over the years, and Flora had not. At her death, all of the accumulated interest would be subject to income tax. However, a gift to Samford University through Flora's will would avoid the taxes and the difficulty of computing them. Flora specified her U.S. savings bonds for the bequest to Samford and was so impressed with her attorney's advice she named him executor of her will.

When Flora died, her attorney called Samford's Office of Gift and Estate Planning about the plans Flora had made. He gathered all the bond certificates, had them re-registered in the name of Samford University and mailed them to the University.

Because Samford, is a tax-exempt institution, the full amount of the bond certificates' value was invested in the Flora M. Woods Norwood Music Scholarship. Flora had attended church all her life, and her love for both church music and Samford lives on through the scholarship that will help Samford music students for generations to come.

For more information about this gift, please Contact us.