News for Thursday, November 7, 1996

[Debbie Weiner]

UNITARIAN UNIVERSALIST ASSOCATION SETTLES MILLIONAIRE'S ESTATE SUIT
FOR BENEFIT OF INDIAN CHARITIES

(Boston, MA - Nov. 7)	After years of litigation, a settlement was
finalized on November 1, 1996 in Pennsylvania Orphans Court which
provided a favorable result to the Unitarian Universalist Association
of Congregations in a suit which concerned the disposition of the
charitable trusts of Jonathan Holdeen.  Holdeen, a New York State
resident, set up the Holdeen charitable trusts in Pennsylvania in the
1940's and 1950's as a way to avoid and eventually eliminate all
taxation. The earnings would, over the 500 to 1,000 years that the
trust accrued,  return to build the trust -- which would soon become
huge. At the end, the trust would go to the Commonwealth of
Pennsylvania, with the goal of eliminating the need for taxes in the
Commonwealth.

Holdeen recognized that legitimacy for his tax scheme would be gained
by naming numerous charitable organizations as partial beneficiaries
for his trusts.  Holdeen designated the Unitarian Universalist
Association of Congregations as a beneficiary of ten trusts, the bulk
of which are used to benefit of the people of India and Asia.  Holdeen
had been peripherally acquainted with the Unitarian Universalism,
mostly through his admiration of liberal religionists including
Benjamin Franklin.

In 1979, the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania issued judgement on a suit
brought by the UUA and other beneficiaries, which agreed with the
UUA's argument that the Holdeen scheme to eliminate the need for
taxation was illegal and not in the public interest, and declared them
invalid.  Years of litigation followed, and in 1989, the Holdeen
family trustees resigned in the face of claims that they had
intermingled their personal investments with the charitable trusts. 
Litigation of the suit continued up to the time of the present
settlement.

CoreStates Bank of Philadelphia currently manages ten Holdeen
charitable trusts, worth some $26 million. Under the settlement
approved by the court on October 2 and finalized on November 1, the
former trustees and other defendants transferred an additional $1.75
million into the charitable trusts. Holdeen heirs also agreed that
certain other "pour over" trusts will provide them with life income,
but then become part of the charitable trusts as well. Income from
another group of Holdeen trusts will eventually be split between the
Unitarian Universalist Association and a college, West Virginia
Wesleyan.

 The income from the trusts has been used principally over the past 13
 years for the benefit of the people of India and have helped to
 empower poor women and aid social change programs in India and Asia. 
 The Holdeen-supported programs have been acclaimed internationally. 
 Among them are SEWA (the Self Employed Women's Association);  Bidhiac
 Sansad (a union of over 10,000 former bonded laborers); and Navsarjan
 (an organization which has set up 1,000 legal clinics in the villages
 of India to serve poor and tribal people).   The UUA's programs have
 provided an innovative model for the funding of charitable programs
 in India which has been used by the Ford Foundation and other trusts.
  The programs were mentioned during the United Nations Beijing, China
 International Conference on Women in the fall of 1995, and First Lady
 Hillary Clinton visited a number of the women who participated in and
 are supported by the programs during her visit to India in March,
 1995.  

The UUA receives funds from two Holdeen trusts which are used to
support the International Association for Religious Freendom and the
Unitarian Universalist Service Committee's work in Asia;  funds from
the other trusts go to support the UUA's India programs.  All work
supported by the Holdeen Trusts is overseen by a Board which includes
representatives of the UUA, the UU Service Committee, and experts on
India Nalini Visvanathan, and Professor Francine Frankel, University
of Pennsylvania.

For more information on the Unitarian Universalist Association,
contact Deborah Weiner at 617-742-2100 x 104 or email: 
dweiner at uua.org.  For more information on the work supported by the
Holdeen Trusts in India and Asia, contact Kenneth MacLean at
617-742-2100 x 412 or email: kmaclean at uua.org.



Debbie Weiner, Director of Public Relations, Marketing and Information
Unitarian Universalist Association   617-742-2100 x 104
<dweiner at uua.org>   FAX:  617-367-3237
Visit the UUA's home page:  http://www.uua.org
The UUA is proud to be an underwriter of National
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