Nobody Does It Better -
Charlie and Don Reed

Arthea (Charlie) Reed has been in education for most of her professional life, both on the inside looking out and the outside looking in. At one time she was Chair of the Education Department at UNC Asheville. At the same time she served on the Board of Carolina Day School.

And what has she seen from her unique perspective? “I'm committed to quality education,” Reed says. “I've seen a lot of places, and I'm just convinced that nobody does it better than Carolina Day School. It does a great job of educating its students.”

Reed has served on the CDS Board for a total of 10 years, not consecutively. She served in 1987 when Asheville Country Day School merged with St. Genevieve/Gibbons Hall School to form Carolina Day School, so she knows school history well. She served again for six years in a term that ended in spring 2004.

Through her years on the Board, she served as chair of the education committee several times, including its very early years. In her second term she chaired the board committee that worked closely with faculty and administrators to establish the philosophy and goals of the Key Learning Center, thus playing an integral part in the process of developing this new component of the overall CDS experience.

In 1996, she retired from UNC Asheville and created a second career as a long-term insurance specialist. Her husband, Don, has been with Northwestern Mutual Financial Network in Asheville since 1978 and is currently the Managing Director. Charlie joined the network and formed her own company, “Long Term Care Insurance Connection.”

As insurance specialists, both she and her husband know a great deal about financial planning and the possibilities for creative charitable giving. During her second term on the Board, CDS entered a major capital campaign to build the school's endowment. When Board members were asked to make a major gift to the endowment, Charlie and Don knew just what to do.

“We made a commitment to Carolina Day School of a 10-year gift,” Charlie explains. “Every year we give an amount of cash to CDS that is used to pay a premium on a joint life insurance policy on our lives. It is matched one to one by Northwestern Mutual Financial Network. At the end of 10 years the policy will be paid up, fully funded. Upon the death of the second one of us, CDS will get a very large sum of money, far larger than what we could have given to them outright.”

Because the gift is life insurance, there are many tax advantages both to the Reeds and to CDS. There is already cash value in the policy and it is steadily growing. CDS could cash it in early if it chose to and forego the later death benefit. But that is unlikely, since the cash value will continue to grow after the policy is fully funded.

“It creates an affordable way for us to have a major impact,” Charlie says. “Our money is matched by Northwestern, then it will be multiplied many times over. It will provide a very substantial death benefit.”

Although they did not attend CDS or have children attend, the Reeds understand the positive impact CDS has had on the lives of its students and their families. “ We have a large number of friends who have their children here,” Charlie says. “It has made a huge difference in their lives. We want to do what we can to make a difference for Carolina Day School. We're very pleased to have found this way.”

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