August 2021 eRate: ACE Act Proposes Important Changes in DAF Rules

ACE Act Proposes Important Changes in DAF Rules

No doubt, you have heard about looming changes threatening the long-established rules governing donor advised funds (DAFs). Some commentators are sounding the alarm. The Philanthropy Roundtable says the changes “would stifle charitable giving, harming those in need.” Others welcome the effort to free up charitable dollars they believe have been squirrelled away for far too long. We will leave the Wagnerian sturm und drang to others, but it is important to understand these proposals and what may be coming our way.

On June 9, 2021, Senator Angus King (I-ME) introduced Senate Bill 1981, the Accelerating Charitable Efforts Act (the “ACE Act”) with Senator Charles Grassley (R-IA) as a co-sponsor. Although legislative prognosticators give the ACE Act only a 1% chance of becoming law in its current form, parts of it could find their way into other legislation. In addition, the ACE Act is heating up long-simmering debates about donor advised funds and private foundations.

Read our summary of major provisions of the ACE Act that apply to donor advised funds.

WEBINAR July 29

Notice: To accommodate clients currently not able to view PG Calc webinars in a group, all registrants will receive a link to a recording of the webinar that they can share with colleagues at their organization. Ordinarily, the recording is available within 1-2 weeks of the live session. Alternatively, additional participants at the same organization who wish to attend the live session may do so for just $25 each.

What Should My Donors Do with Their Retirement Assets?

Presented by
Jeff Lydenberg

Thursday,
July 29, 2021
1:00 - 2:30 pm ET

UPCOMING TRAINING

Planned Giving by the Numbers

July 27-28, ONLINE (6 hours over 2 days)

PGM to PGM Anywhere FREE

August 4, ONLINE (90 Minutes)

PGM Anywhere and Gift Annuities

August 17-18, ONLINE (4 hours over 2 days)

PGM Anywhere and Charitable Remainder Trusts

September 8-9, ONLINE (4 hours over 2 days)

Quick Tip: Adding a New User to PGM Anywhere the Right Way

It is not uncommon for a gift planner to move on and be replaced by someone new. When that happens at your institution, you need to set up the new gift planner with her own user account in PGM Anywhere. Doing so will allow the new user to login with her own username and password, save cases that will be associated with her, and facilitate other aspects of PGM Anywhere.

Step one is to make the former user inactive.

Choose Users > User Management.
Click next to the user you wish to make inactive.
Scroll down until you see the Status menu. Change the Status to Inactive.
Do not choose Locked. A locked user account counts against your organization’s license limit. An inactive account does not.
Click Done.

Next, add the new user.

While still in Users > User Management, click at the bottom of the list of users.
Enter all the requested information for the new user, then click Done.

Taking this approach assures your organization stays within its license limit. It also prevents a new user from being associated with cases that were saved by a predecessor. (Note: You must have access to the Users menu to add or edit user accounts. If you don’t, you will need to ask someone with this access to perform the steps above.)

Please contact Client Services at 888-474-2252 or support@pgcalc.com if you have any questions.

BatchCalcs Will Add Punch to Your Fall Gift Annuity Mailing

Every year, our BatchCalcs service helps charities engage with thousands of gift annuity donors and prospects in a more personal way. Fall mailings make September and October our busiest time of year for BatchCalcs. Consider using BatchCalcs in your next gift annuity mailing!

What is BatchCalcs? BatchCalcs is PG Calc’s service that enables you to include personalized gift annuity calculations in each email message or printed letter in a mailing. Some clients include just the annuity rate the prospect would get. Others enclose a Summary of Benefits chart that displays the prospect’s charitable deduction and annuity amount and how the annuity would be taxed. All we need from you is an Excel file with a birth date or age and an ID for each prospect. You can include target gift amounts, too. You get back your Excel file with calculated values added and, if you wish, a file of letters or Summary of Benefits charts with values merged into them.

If you want to use BatchCalcs to add punch to your gift annuity mailing or just want to learn more about it, please contact Dave Wolfe at dwolfe@pgcalc.com or call 888-497-4970.

Tricks and Traps with Endowment Sub-Accounting Recording Now Available

In May, PG Calc held a free info session, Tricks and Traps with Endowment Sub-Accounting. President Gary Pforzheimer offered his insights on avoiding common pitfalls and streamlining endowment sub-accounting processes.

If you missed out on the info session, view the recording and slides for free. Learn how to stay organized, avoid the dreaded overthink and penny-rounding paralysis, and get rid of spreadsheets for computations while keeping them for final reports. You’ll also see examples of reports that we use with Endowment Sub-Accounting clients.

What's New in Marketing Services

We are completing an upgrade to a new version of Drupal, our web content management framework, and a migration to Amazon Web Services (AWS).

Packed with multiple powerful features, Drupal 8 will make our planned giving website content management system far more flexible than ever before. It allows PG Calc to make site changes more quickly and easily, make mobile sites more responsive, and give our sites better load-time performance and increased security. AWS is a modern, agile, and resilient hosting platform. We continue to be committed to the security of your site and its data in the cloud. Our migration allows PG Calc to take advantage of a scalable, reliable, and secure global computing infrastructure, the virtual backbone of Amazon.com’s multi-billion dollar online business.

Conflict Between NY State and ACGA Maximum Rates Moves One Step Closer to Resolution

In last month’s eRate issue, we let you know that the American Council on Gift Annuities (ACGA) has been working with New York regulators and legislators to revise New York insurance law so that the maximum annuity rates allowed for New York donors are no longer lower than the ACGA’s suggested maximum annuity rates at some ages. We have good news. We are one more important step closer to a resolution of this situation!

As reported by the ACGA to its members earlier this week, New York Assembly Member Kevin Cahill has introduced AB 8164, which would make the changes to New York insurance law the ACGA has been seeking. The current statute will likely remain in effect at least until next April, however. The next New York legislative session will start in January and, per AB 8164, the revised statute will take effect 90 days after it becomes a law. See our Knowledge Base article for more information on this issue and what we know and don’t know about complying with New York’s maximum rates.

New York Publishes One-Life Maximum Annuity Rates for Q3 2021

On July 8, the NY Department of Financial Services updated its table of one-life quarterly maximum annuity rates for Q3 2021. The new maximum rates are a little higher than the Q2 2021 rates, reducing the range of male ages where the New York rates are lower than the ACGA rates from 51-84 to 57, 59, and 70-84 and the range of female ages that are lower from 50-87 to 53-87. You can find the latest PDF of NY maximum annuity rates here. The maximum rate for the applicable quarterly table, gender, and age equals the value in the “Maximum Income” column divided by 10.

FASB Liabilities for Planned Gifts – Your Role

Many of our clients end their fiscal years on June 30. If you’re one of them, you may have been asked to provide a report showing the liabilities associated with your organization’s active planned gifts. If not, you may be before this year is over, because Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) guidelines require all charities to include these liabilities in their annual financial statements.

Read this classic blog post to understand your obligation and how to create the reports you need to stay compliant.

PG Calc Exceeds Expectations for Communities Foundation of Texas

“How does one write a testimonial for an organization that delivers services unfailingly with such outstanding expertise and professionalism and an extra dose of humanity? I am at a loss! PG Calc has been there for me since I entered the gift-planning profession. It has always fulfilled my greatest expectation – no matter the question – no matter the timing!”

Geri Jacobs, ChFC, CLU
Director of Charitable Gift Planning
Communities Foundation of Texas

Learn more about the Communities Foundation of Texas.

How can PG Calc help your organization succeed?

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