Goldman Sachs Changes Gift Policy

The Goldman Sachs investment house has announced that it will lift restrictions on the sale and transfer of its stock to allow current and retired top executives to donate the shares to charity. The company estimated that as much as $500-million could be available to charities.

People who were top executives at the company, which went public in May, received a total of 265 million shares of stock, now estimated to be worth some $18-billion.

Under the terms of the stock offering, the executives were prohibited from selling or transferring any stock until at least three years after the company went public. Retired executives could begin to sell or transfer some of their stock beginning one year after the public offering.

Now, however, executives can transfer shares to charity until the end of December. Many will probably want to do so to cut the taxes they may incur from the offering and other stock growth.

The public offering produced another benefit for charity: The company said it would give $200-million worth of stock to create the Goldman Sachs Foundation. The foundation is expected to focus on education, with an emphasis on secondary schools.