Prologue. The letter ruling that you are about to read gives the charitable deduction rules for payments made to charities under the terms of a settlement agreement. The ruling properly is limited to the tax consequences. You won't get very far into the ruling's facts, however, when you are likely to have a non-tax issue leap out at you. I'll discuss that issue at the end.

Situation. Decedent hired Attorney to prepare her will. The will gave these directions for her residuary estate: