The Henry G. Freeman Jr. Pin Money Fund was the operating name of an annuity fund of the Henry G. Freeman Jr. Trust, benefiting the

first ladies First lady is an unofficial title usually used for the wife, and occasionally used for the daughter or other female relative, of a non-monarchical head of state or chief executive. The term is also used to describe a woman seen to be at the t ...

of the United States. The fund was established as part of the will (written in 1912) of Henry G. Freeman Jr., a prominent

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

real estate developer. Freeman believed that the

president of the United States The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States of America. The president directs the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United Stat ...

was paid a "miserable pittance", and that a way of increasing his income while avoiding the appearance of political gifts was to institute an annuity of $12,000 per year ($ in today's dollars) to be paid "to the lady termed the first lady in the land; that is, the President of the United States icwife, or anyone representing the president as such, should he not be married or should she die during his administration." Freeman's will specified that the money be for the first lady's "own and absolute use" and the payments "shall continue in force as long as this glorious government exists." Freeman died in 1917, but the fund did not take effect immediately. The fund came to public knowledge in 1931, when Freeman's son died. A contemporary newspaper report stated that "legal experts" were divided as to whether the First Ladies' annuity would begin at that time, whether it would have to wait for Freeman's other annuity beneficiaries to die, or whether it would be altogether invalid under the

rule against perpetuities The rule against perpetuities is a legal rule in the American common law that prevents people from using legal instruments (usually a deed or a will) to exert control over the ownership of private property for a time long beyond the lives of peo ...

. In the event, no first ladies actually received any funds until all Freeman's descendants had died. The fund became active in November 1989 during the administration of

George H. W. Bush George Herbert Walker BushSince around 2000, he has been usually called George H. W. Bush, Bush Senior, Bush 41 or Bush the Elder to distinguish him from his eldest son, George W. Bush, who served as the 43rd president from 2001 to 2009; pr ...

, but due to a court dispute the first payments were not made until December 1992.

Barbara Bush Barbara Pierce Bush (June 8, 1925 – April 17, 2018) was First Lady of the United States from 1989 to 1993, as the wife of President George H. W. Bush, and the founder of the Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy. She previously was ...

received $36,000 retroactively and donated a portion to her charity work, and spent an unspecified amount doing "something nice for my grandchildren." First Lady

Hillary Clinton Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton ( Rodham; born October 26, 1947) is an American politician, diplomat, and former lawyer who served as the 67th United States Secretary of State for President Barack Obama from 2009 to 2013, as a United States sen ...

and First Lady

Laura Bush Laura Lane Welch Bush (''née'' Welch; born November 4, 1946) is an American teacher, librarian, memoirist and author who was First Lady of the United States from 2001 to 2009. Bush previously served as First Lady of Texas from 1995 to 2000. ...

donated the payments to charity. The income was taxable, and the fund was overseen by

Wells Fargo Bank Wells Fargo & Company is an American multinational financial services company with corporate headquarters in San Francisco, California; operational headquarters in Manhattan; and managerial offices throughout the United States and inter ...

. When

Michelle Obama Michelle LaVaughn Robinson Obama (born January 17, 1964) is an American attorney and author who served as first lady of the United States from 2009 to 2017. She was the first African-American woman to serve in this position. She is married t ...

was First Lady, she received payments under the fund in 2009 and 2010. But the trustees at Wells Fargo Bank were apparently concerned that the fund violated the rule against perpetuities as it was when Freeman died, which restricted most trusts from lasting more than 21 years beyond the life of a then-living person; the year 2010 marked 21 years since the death of Freeman's last descendant. As a result, Michelle Obama relinquished her interest and directed the trustees to disburse the remainder of the fund to charities designated in Freeman's will. From the Obamas' 2011 tax return, the publicly released tax returns of the President and First Lady no longer listed the Freeman fund as a source of income.See http://www.taxhistory.org/thp/presreturns.nsf/Returns/02F3F5B2D15B756385257876006F5ADB/$file/B_Obama_2010.pdf for the Obamas' 2010 return, where the Freeman fund is mentioned on Schedule B, and http://www.taxhistory.org/thp/presreturns.nsf/Returns/1D6FCBBDBE24A89C852579DF0051B896/$file/B_Obama_2011.pdf for their 2011 return, where it is not mentioned.

References

*Yang, John. NBC News, May 18, 2007.

External links

The American Presidency ProjectMSNBC article on the Henry G. Freeman Jr. Pin Money Fund
{{DEFAULTSORT:Freeman, Henry G., Jr. Pin Money Fund 1917 establishments in the United States 2010 disestablishments in the United States Freeman, Henry G., Jr. *