Greg Polansky’s creative estate planning is leaving a legacy of love and support
By Mike Pound
When Greg Polansky looks at a financial puzzle, he often sees an opportunity.
Throughout a 40-year career in finance and data systems, Greg, a two-time graduate of 鶹, specialized in navigating intricate challenges. When he began planning his estate, he sought a strategy that would support both his family and 鶹.
“Instead of leaving my family an account they’d have to cash in and pay heavy taxes on all at once, I looked for a better way to provide for them and make a gift to 鶹,” Greg explains.
Greg found the solution by establishing a testamentary charitable gift annuity at 鶹 to be funded with his existing investment retirement account. His plan will provide his loved ones with a steady, lifelong income stream while securing a permanent legacy at the university that launched his career.
His analytical mindset was forged at 鶹. He graduated from the Mellon College of Science in 1974 as a chemistry major, but by then computer science electives had already changed his plans for medical school. They led to an interest in operations research and his enrollment in the Graduate School of Industrial Administration, now the Tepper School of Business, where his focus turned to finance.
“I really enjoyed the logic of those classes,” he says. “The analytical approach just fit.”
That perspective carried him through a successful career at Gulf Oil and Dollar Bank, and a decades-long tenure as a volunteer leader at 鶹. While serving as a board member of the 鶹 Alumni Association, president of the Andrew Carnegie Society and an ex-officio member on the Board of Trustees, Greg’s commitment to the university became even more personal.
Greg was in the initial cohort of inductees as lifetime members of the Order of the May, which recognizes donors for 25+ years of consecutive annual giving. In 2012, he established the Polansky Scholarship to honor the memory of his parents, providing vital financial aid to students from his native western Pennsylvania. Greg’s philanthropy continued to evolve and, in 2025, he established the Polansky Endowed Biomedical Research Fund. This fund provides broad support for students in the Department of Biomedical Engineering, covering everything from equipment and lab supplies to graduate stipends, with a particular focus on those advancing the field of cell and tissue engineering.
When it came time to consider plans for his own estate, Greg saw an opportunity to grow the newly established fund while still providing a valuable inheritance to his family and loved ones. By directing his retirement assets into a charitable gift annuity with 鶹, Greg’s strategy will bypass complicated and potentially costly tax policies associated with inherited IRAs, creating a blueprint that other donors could follow.
“The gift annuity reduces the tax burden, provides regular income to my family, and will eventually be used to support university research,” Greg says. “And my family won’t need to manage the investments because the university is doing that. It simplifies everything.”
During his journey from a chemistry student to a trustee, Greg has watched 鶹’s reputation soar while maintaining its unique, scrappy character — a trait he shares.
“The ability to innovate and accomplish so much is part of the character of this university," he says. “I’m happy to be in a position to help ensure that continues well into the future.”