FEATURED ARTICLE: Deferred Gift Annuities - They Don't Make 'Em Like They Used To
Two longtime supporters of your organization inquire about establishing a deferred charitable gift annuity with $25,000. They are in their early 70’s but don’t need additional income just yet. They established one 10 years ago that began making payments a few years ago.

The donors are surprised when your initial calculations show that the eventual payout rate of their new annuity will be lower than the payout rate for the annuity they established 10 years ago. You are taken aback; how could this be? Did you make a mistake in running the calculations? Is there a problem with the software you are using?

• Quick Tip: Compare Gifts Funded with Different Principal Amounts in PGM
  
• New Requirement for Reserve Reports for New York Annual Filing Due March 1st
  
• PGM 7.2 Released Today (February 18)
  
• Are You Using PGM Anywhere Yet? 
• Marketing Corner: The Importance of Your Brand

Quick Tip: Compare Gifts Funded with Different Principal Amounts in PGM  
Sometimes you want to be able to show a prospect how the benefits of funding a life income gift will differ when the gift amount differs. Planned Giving Manager makes it easy!

1. Open the Gift Options window in Programs 1, 2, or 3 and choose the gift option you want to illustrate as many times as there are different funding amounts you wish to compare. For example, choose two gift annuities to illustrate funding a gift annuity with two different amounts.
2. Open the Principal Value – Cost Basis window and click Yes to Compare different principal amounts.
3. Enter the principal value and cost basis of the assets to fund each gift option. If you want to compare more than two different funding amounts, click Add Option to enter an additional funding amount.
4. Enter all other details for your illustration as you ordinarily would.
5. Produce your presentations.  Comparison presentations, such as the Comparison of Benefits chart in Program 1, are best for illustrating the benefits of different funding amounts.

Note that you can also use the Compare different principal amounts feature to compare funding a gift with cash versus appreciated property. Just enter the same principal but a different cost basis for each gift option in step (3).

New Requirement for Reserve Reports for New York Annual Filing Due March 1st
If your organization is registered to issue gift annuities in New York, you may have noticed a new requirement as part of the Annual Report due March 1. Rather than submitting a hard copy of the reserve report, as in years past, the report must now be provided in electronic format. All filing organizations must provide the reserve report in PDF form. In addition, NY-based charities (which would include charities incorporated in NY even if physically located in a different state) must file the reserve report in Excel form.

GiftWrap makes it easy to generate the reserve report in both formats. Here’s how:

On the GiftWrap menu bar, select Compliance > Gift Annuity Reserves – State Method and enter your report criteria.

A.) To create the PDF version of the report, scroll to the bottom of the report selection page and choose PDF as the Display Option, then click OK to produce the report. Save the resulting PDF. 
 

B.) To create the Excel version of the report, return to the report selection page, and choose Report Viewer as the Display Option, then click OK.

On the resulting view screen, there will be a toolbar above the report title. Find the two Excel icons, hover over the icons with your cursor to display the tool tips, and click to select Export in Collapsed Format. Save the resulting Excel spreadsheet.

PGM 7.2 released Today (February 18)
Planned Giving Manager 7.2 incorporates all indexing of tax schedules, exclusions and exemptions, as well as a handful of enhancements and bug fixes. If you are a PGM client, you should have received an email from PG Calc on February 18 containing information on how to update your software to PGM 7.2. Please contact PG Calc Support at 888-474-2252 or support@pgcalc.com if you have any questions about this update or did not receive the update email.

Are You Using PGM Anywhere Yet?
We were thrilled to release last October our first version of PGM Anywhere, our online software for creating planned gift proposals. Since then, hundreds of our Planned Giving Manager clients have begun using PGM Anywhere on their tablets, laptops, and desktops to do quick calculations and produce illustrations for prospects.

If you are the PGM primary copyholder for your organization and aren’t using PGM Anywhere already, please contact PG Calc Client Services at 888-474-2252 or support@pgcalc.com to get set up with a PGM Anywhere account. If you are a PGM user and would like to have access to PGM Anywhere just ask the primary copyholder in your organization to set you up with an account.

Marketing Corner: The Importance of Your Brand
Joshua Bell released a new Bach recording recently, which had me a bit perplexed. There is nothing new about Bach. Why would anyone want to buy this CD since there so many Bach recordings already in existence? But Bell has his own “brand,” and people will buy this recording just because he has a following and his interpretation of Bach’s music is surely to be different from his peers'.

In many ways, the situation is no different at your organization. Read More >