From the PG Calc Blog:

Medaling Mortality Tables: Gold, Silver and Bronze Choices for FASB

If you’re a charity following the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) recommendations for calculating the liability of your split interest agreements, you have an important choice to make at the end of each fiscal year: which mortality table to use to calculate your liabilities. While you might hope that your auditor will make a recommendation, the choice of a mortality table lands squarely in the charity’s purview. For charities looking for an opinion on which mortality table to choose, we’re happy to offer a ranking of our preferred mortality tables from bronze to gold.

Why the Mortality Table Matters
The liability amount is designed to be a good faith estimate of a charity’s obligation to make payments to all gift income beneficiaries for the balance of each individual gift’s term, whether that term is for measuring lives, a term of years, or a combination of the two. Underestimating life spans will deflate a charity’s liability calculation, which can lead to real world consequences for your charity.

Read the blog post . . .

Things We Are Following: New Iowa Law Establishes Favorable Death Benefit Recovery Rules

Effective July 1, 2024, Iowa has a new law (HF 2366) designed to make it easy for Iowa charities to receive death benefit funds that are rightfully theirs. Receiving death benefits from IRAs and other financial accounts continues to be a challenge for charities in certain cases, so the new Iowa law is good news for charities in Iowa.

Under Iowa’s new law if a charity provides the holder of the designated property, such as an IRA administrator, with an affidavit that includes the name and address of the deceased, the charity’s name, address, and primary contact information, and other easily-provided information, the property holder must transfer the property to the charity within 30 days. Equally important, the new law explicitly precludes the property holder from requesting personal information, such as social security number, driver’s license number, or personal financial information, from any employee or board member of the charity. If the property holder does not comply with the charity’s request for payment within the 30-day window, the charity can go to court. A favorable ruling can include damages sustained by the charity, costs of the action, attorney fees, and a penalty of up to $10,000.

Is the new law in Iowa the start of a trend at the state level or a step toward a similar federal law? We don’t know. We do know that Johni Hays, leader of the RIFT Project (Release IRA Funds Timely), delivered an excellent webinar for us in June on receiving death benefits. She shared practical advice for charities seeking to receive death benefit funds more quickly and resources that will help charities work with specific financial institutions, as well as the current state of affairs at the state and federal levels, including details about the new law in Iowa. A recording of her webinar, along with a pdf of her slides, is available for purchase here.

GiftWrap Release Includes Numerous Improvements

On July 5, we announced our latest release of GiftWrap, our industry-leading software for administering planned gifts. This release focused on fixes, small enhancements, upgrading of components, and overall usability. Enhancements include a QCD asset type, allowing users to select gifts funded by QCD, as well as changes that give users more control over certain processes and reports.

To learn more about GiftWrap or request a free trial, go here or contact us at 888-474-2252 or support@pgcalc.com.

Updated NY Max Annuity Rates Not Yet Available, But Should Not Be a Concern

A new law that revises how New York computes its maximum annuity rates for gift annuities issued to New York residents went into effect on January 23, 2024. While New York has not yet published updated one-life maximum rates for gift annuities issued to New York residents from July 1, 2024 through December 31, 2024, we fully expect these rates to remain substantially higher than their corresponding ACGA rates at all ages. We expect the same to remain true for two-life immediate annuity rates and one-life and two-life deferred annuity rates. Consequently, charities should be confident they can offer ACGA rates to all New York donors through the end of the 2024.

Remember, New York reserve calculations are not affected by the new law. The new law does not change any of the rules for computing New York annuity reserves. In particular, the maximum allowable interest rates will still be determined the same way and updated quarterly, and reserve amounts will still depend on the gender of the annuitant(s).

New Chapter for PG Calc Gift Administration

It is with mixed feelings that we bid farewell to PG Calc’s Director of Gift Administration Julia Boerth, who is following her heart and taking a role in the nonprofit sector at her church after leading PG Calc’s Gift Administration team since 2018. Julia, who has over twenty years of experience serving the public, nonprofit, and philanthropic sectors, has grown our Gift Administration line of business and service offerings with gift administration, compliance reporting, and endowment sub-accounting. We wish Julia well in her next chapter!

It is with great pleasure that we announce that Associate Director of Gift Administration Louise Sainato will become the Director of Gift Administration and lead our team of planned gift administration experts without missing a beat. In her twenty-five years at PG Calc, Louise has gained the respect and trust of her colleagues and the hundreds of clients who rely on us to administer their planned gifts. Under the leadership of PG Calc Director of Client Services Kara Morin, we will be integrating the Client Services and Gift Administration teams into the new Planned Giving Services Department to make an even better and more seamless experience for our clients by linking the strengths of both teams into single department dedicated to customer service. Kara will become the Senior Director of Planned Giving Services and oversee the integration of the teams. We look forward to the many ways this new structure will make our impeccable customer service even better.

BatchCalcs Give Away at Boston Training August 14-15

To celebrate the end of summer, the first ten registrants to our Boston in-person training will receive a free BatchCalcs order for 500 CGA prospects! Come learn how to effectively model a range of charitable gift annuity plans and leave with this marketing tool that will allow you to reach 500 annuity prospects with custom CGA calculations.

August 14 – Gift Planning with PGM Anywhere: Introductory

We’ll begin by unpacking the variables used in creating an immediate payment charitable gift annuity, from actuarial age, to IRS discount rate, to gift annuity rates. We’ll calculate deductions and taxation of payments for cash and illiquid assets for both one- and two-life annuities. The class will explore the full functionality of PGM Anywhere by creating proposal letters, annuity contracts, acknowledgement letters, discount rate election forms, and the federally mandated disclosure statement, directly from the software. From that base, we’ll explore QCD gift annuities, deferred gift annuities, and flexible gift annuities with various funding types.

August 15 – Gift Planning with PGM Anywhere: Advanced

Our second day is a deep dive into the world of charitable trusts. We’ll create proposals for trusts that run for terms, lives, and a combination of life and a term of years. We’ll move on to flip trusts designed to minimize income until retirement or to take in illiquid assets. We’ll cover how to illustrate future cash flow and payment taxation from a trust and to adjust investment criteria. With this foundation we’ll pivot to charitable lead trusts and discuss gift tax issues. The day will conclude with retained life estates.

On both days we’ll finish at 4:00 pm, allowing plenty of time for attendees to explore the city of Boston.

For more information about both trainings and to register, please visit our website.

The Society of the Little Flower Finds PG Calc’s Marketing Services Team Terrific

“Just a quick word to compliment Charlotte [PC Calc Marketing Services Advisor] in helping us with a couple of response booklets. She was terrific to work with, was beyond helpful and quickly responsive whenever I had questions about the projects. I could tell she really wanted things to be the way I wanted; her heart was ‘in it.’ ”

-- Dan Pritchard
Special Gifts Officer
Society of the Little Flower

Learn more about Society of the Little Flower.

Learn about PG Calc’s Marketing Services.