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eRate Newsletter | May 15, 2023

IRS DISCOUNT RATE: JUNE 4.2%

“Please, Sir, I Want Some More”
The Plight of Orphan DAFs

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What happens when there is money left in a donor-advised fund after the last donor-advisor has died? Where does that money go? Who decides how the money is used? Like a street urchin in a Charles Dickens novel, an “orphan donor-advised fund” can sometimes achieve great expectations or, sadly, pass invisibly without much impact. And, like Dickens’ obsession with orphans, there are those who are concerned about the increasing orphan population and some who would exploit these orphans for their own purposes.

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WEBINAR May 25

What to Use When: CGAs vs. CRATs and CRUTs

Many gift officers think immediately of a charitable gift annuity when a prospect starts talking about gifts that pay income. Some major and annual gift officers may think gift annuities are the only planned gifts that pay income! This is not true – factors to consider when deciding between a CGA and CRT include cost, assets to be used to fund the gift, desired number of income beneficiaries and much more. This webinar will help you quickly analyze a donor’s situation and feel confident you are suggesting the life income gift that will be best for your charity and for the donor.

Presented by
Jeff Lydenberg

Thursday,
May 25, 2023
1:00 - 2:00 pm ET


REGISTER

UPCOMING TRAINING

PGM to PGM Anywhere – FREE!

June 6, Online (90 Minutes)

Planned Giving by the Numbers

June 13-14, Online (6 hours over 2 days)

Computing FASB Liabilities with GiftWrap

June 22, Online (90 Minutes)

PGM to PGM Anywhere – FREE

July 6, Online (90 Minutes)

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Quick Tip: GiftCalcs Provides Guardrails When Illustrating a QCD for a CGA

GiftCalcs, PG Calc’s gift calculator for websites, was updated in February to allow donors to model the benefits of a CGA funded with a QCD from an IRA. Guardrails are in place to prevent a donor from modeling a QCD for a CGA that would not meet all requirements.

  1. When selecting “IRA transfer” as the Property type, the donor is reminded that they must be at least 70½ years old. (GiftCalcs does not enforce this minimum for beneficiary ages, because the annuitant could be the donor’s spouse, who can be younger than 70½.)

    GiftCalcs Property Type detail: IRA transfer (donor must be 70 1/2+)

  2. Having selected “IRA transfer,” the gift amount field reminds the donor that the gift cannot exceed $50,000.

    GiftCalcs image: Value of IRA funds transferrerd (max. $50,000)

If the donor tries to enter a value greater than $50,000, they get an error message and cannot continue until they have entered a valid amount.

Currently, the “IRA transfer” property type is available for gift annuities in all GiftCalcs accounts. If your charity would like this property type removed for gift annuities or would like to add it for CRUTs or CRATs, please contact support@pgcalc.com.

From the Blog

Here are the PG Calc Blog posts since the last eRate newsletter.

Trust Matters: Life Income Gifts and Revocable Living Trusts

In our work with planned giving professionals, we receive questions from time to time about donors using trusts in conjunction with life-income gift arrangements. The most common question is whether charitable gift annuity (CGA) payments – or beneficiary payments from charitable remainder trusts (CRTs) – can be issued to trusts rather than directly to the annuitants or trust beneficiaries. But there is a second question that comes up as well – whether a trust can be the donor or grantor of a gift annuity or CRT.

Read the blog post . . .

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When Your Donor Should Consider a QCD for a CGA . . . and When They Shouldn’t!

Since January 1, 2023, it has been possible for a donor to make a qualified charitable distribution (QCD) from an IRA of up to $50,000 to fund a gift annuity. This new giving opportunity has sparked a lot of interest among gift planners. Some have already helped donors complete this type of gift. 

Under what circumstances, if any, does funding a gift annuity with a QCD make financial sense?

Read the blog post . . .

 READ THE BLOG 

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GiftWrap Update Coming Very Soon

We will be updating GiftWrap on May 19. This latest update contains a variety of enhancements that further increase the value and utility of PG Calc’s planned gift administration software. This release focuses on fixes, small enhancements, upgrading of components, and accessibility.

Looking for a comprehensive and efficient solution for administering your planned gifts? Visit our website to learn more about GiftWrap, or contact us at info@pgcalc.com or 888-497-4970.

IRS Affirms PG Calc Deduction Calculation Method

On May 5, 2023, the IRS announced in proposed regulations the 2010 mortality table that is currently optional for computing the income tax charitable deduction for most planned gifts. It will become mandatory after the IRS publishes final regulations.

While the new mortality table has, rightly, received considerable attention from the gift planning community (see our analysis of 2010CM here), the proposed regulations also clarify the IRS’s position on a question of particular interest to PG Calc, if not most gift planners. Throughout the proposed regulations, wherever the method for computing a remainder factor is described, text like the following appears:

... an exact method of obtaining the applicable factors (such as through software using the actual adjusted payout rate and the actuarial formula ...) or a linear interpolation must be used, provided whichever method used is applied consistently.

PG Calc software has used actual adjusted payout rates and actuarial formulae to compute charitable deductions since day one. Linear interpolation was necessary when computing deductions manually using the tables in IRS Publications 1457, 1458, and 1459 but made little sense to recreate in software, so we didn’t. 38 years later, we are pleased to see the IRS approve our approach explicitly.

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Training Class

Planned Giving by the Numbers Online Training – Don’t Miss It!

Join us on June 13 and 14 for this online class that will help you build your confidence as a gift planning professional by strengthening your understanding of numbers you work with every day. It will also enable you to answer some of the toughest prospect and advisor questions. Register now!

Register Now

Legal Tender Status of Bitcoin

The IRS considers cryptocurrency as property, not as currency, for purposes of taxation. See IRS Notice 2014-21. If cryptocurrency is sold for more than its purchase price, there is a taxable gain. If cryptocurrency is sold for less than its purchase price, that could be a deductible loss.

At the time the IRS issued Notice 2014-21, no country considered cryptocurrency of any kind as currency issued by a government, i.e., legal tender. El Salvador and the Central African Republic now recognize one type of cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, as legal tender.

On April 24, 2023, the IRS issued Notice 2023-34 to clarify that some countries now recognize Bitcoin as legal tender, but in the United States, cryptocurrency of all kinds is still considered property and is taxed accordingly.

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PG Calc booth at PGGNE

Planned Giving Conferences – Where We've Been, and Where We're Going

Julie Boerth, PG Calc’s Director of Gift Administration, was pleased to present the Charitable Gift Annuities and Charitable Remainder Trusts course at the latest meeting of the Planned Giving Council of Greater Philadelphia in early May. Julia highlighted the importance of these two critical gift types in any planned giving program.

If you’re looking to meet other members of the PG Calc team in May and June, here are the conferences where we’ve been and where we’ll be: 

  • Planned Giving Group of New England Annual Conference
    (May 12)
  • Western Regional Planned Giving Conference
    (May 16-18)
  • Philanthropic Planning Group of Greater New York Planned Giving Day (May 18)
  • National Capital Gift Planning Council Planned Giving Days
    (May 23)
  • Chicago Council on Planned Giving Annual Symposium
    (May 25)
  • New Jersey Charitable Gift Planners 26th Annual Conference (June 6)

Read Our Top Tips to Avoid Trouble with State CGA Regulations

The last few years have brought increased scrutiny from states in areas as varied as disclosure language in marketing materials, content of gift annuity agreements, the manner in which reserve assets are held, and more rigid adherence on annual report requirements.

To help keep your organization compliant with state CGA regulations, PG Calc Consultants Edie Matulka and Julie Goldenberg Hay have created several key recommendations when preparing or reviewing your organization's charitable gift annuities. Download Top Tips to Avoid Trouble now:

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Download Now

The University of North Carolina System Benefits from PG Calc Custom Training

PGM Anywhere has been a great tool for myUNC logo 2 colleagues and me. With the recent legislative change and new gift opportunity to fund life income gifts with IRA assets, we wanted to ensure that our colleagues felt comfortable preparing proposals within PGM Anywhere. It is always nice to have a refresher of the features in PGM Anywhere as well. We reached out to the Client Services team for a custom training. They were very helpful in coordinating the session and providing an effective training for system colleagues and me. During the training, not only did Kara show us the workaround in the system but she also shared an overview of the new legislative change, requirements, the updated narratives, etc. My colleagues and I thought it was a very insightful training for the new gift opportunity they are marketing and a reminder of the services we have available through PG Calc. Kara also reminded the group about the support services PG Calc offers. Thank you again for your support and an informative session!”

--Kinna N. Clark, ESQ. CAP®
Senior Director of Development and Gift Planning Services
The University of North Carolina System

Learn more about The University of North Carolina System.

Learn more about PG Calc’s custom training options.