‘Frugal’ Indiana man leaves $13M to charity in his will, but names none

An unlikely millionaire willed a staggering $13 million to charity when he died, but didn’t specify his intended recipients for the pile of cash, leaving his lawyer to try to dole it out.

The attorney’s method left some organizations thinking it was a scam, and they lost out on a slice of the unorthodox bequest.

Indianapolis resident Terry Kahn, a 30-year employee of the Veterans Administration, died in 2021 with no immediate family to leave his fortune to.

Kahn said in his will that it should be donated to “charity,” but failed to designate any particular organizations he supported.

Kahn’s attorney Dwayne Isaacs, told CBS News Kahn “was unbelievably frugal,” and didn’t even own a cell phone because he thought it was too expensive.

After his client died, Isaacs was tasked with the job of cold-calling dozens of local nonprofits and essentially offering them millions.

“Probably three or four different entities that lost out because they just didn’t take my call,” Isaacs told the outlet.

A nonprofit exec who took his call recalled hearing Isaacs’ shocking query.

“The first thing he said was, ‘What would you do with $1 million?’” recalled Emmy Hildebrand, CEO of Helping Veterans and Families of Indiana.

He was not alone in being stunned by the calls.

Margaret Sheehan, the executive director of Teachers’ Treasures, a free store for educators in need of classroom supplies, was gifted $1.5 million, roughly double the group’s annual budget

“It was an act of amazing kindness to which I responded, ‘I need to sit down,’” Sheehan said.

“We hovered above our own bodies, thinking, like, is this real?” another recipient, Julie Henson, vice president of development for Coburn Place, which supports domestic violence survivors, told the outlet.

According to Isaacs, Kahn lived in a modest house, drove an old Honda, and asked that when he passed no money be spent on a death announcement.

“He’s smiling someplace, there’s no doubt about it,” Isaacs told the outlet. “He would be getting a kick out of this.”