Donors who have been considering establishing charitable gift annuities will benefit by completing their gifts before January 1, 2012. Why? Because payout rates recommended by the American Council on Gift Annuities are scheduled to go down for annuity agreements signed after December 31. Payments will be roughly 6% to 12% less for charitable gift annuities set up after the first of the year. Here is a comparison of the current and future payout rates for single life arrangements:

Age of Recipient	2011 Rate	2012 Rate	Age of Recipient	2011 Rate	2012 Rate
60	4.8%	4.4%	76	6.6%	6.0%
62	5.0	4.5	78	7.0	6.4
64	5.2	4.6	80	7.5	6.8
66	5.4	4.8	82	7.8	7.2
68	5.6	4.9	84	8.2	7.6
70	5.8	5.1	86	8.6	8.0
72	6.0	5.4	88	9.2	8.4
74	6.3	5.7	90 or over	9.8	9.0

Please call our Office of Gift Planning at 800-843-8114 if you are interested in beating the December 31 deadline for taking advantage of the current higher charitable gift annuity rates. We can provide illustrations of all the tax and financial benefits for your exact circumstances, including payout rates for two-life charitable gift annuities.

People don’t give to worthwhile organizations just to save taxes.  But tax savings clearly enable friends to do more with their generosity. While it’s seldom prudent to predict the course of future federal tax legislation, some tax advisers are telling clients that the tax rewards for charitable giving may never be better than they are right now – and that those incentives could decline considerably under recent legislative proposals.  Some of the changes under consideration would:

• place a cap on charitable contribution deductions;
• permit deductions only above a certain floor (similar to medical expense deductions);
• replace the charitable deduction with a less generous tax credit;
• calculate donors’ tax savings under a lower “flat tax” rate.

December of 2011 could be a good time, from a tax standpoint, to follow through with important contributions you may have been considering, such as charitable gift annuities, charitable remainder trusts and gifts of appreciated securities. 

IRA owners who are age 70½ or older should keep in mind that the highly favorable “IRA charitable rollover” provision “sunsets” after 2011.  Qualified donors can still instruct IRA custodians to make direct charitable gifts up to $100,000, which can take the place of required minimum distributions and thereby reduce income taxes – even for seniors who do not itemize their deductions.  Donors and charities hope the IRA provision will be renewed for 2012 and future years, but prospects are far from certain with so much attention being paid in Congress to deficit reduction.

Please call our Office of Gift Planning at 800-843-8114 for assistance in planning any gift. 

The loss of a spouse is widely considered the most stressful period in a person’s life, but eventually the time comes to make plans for the future.  When things have settled down after the funeral, take time for a thorough financial review.  You’ll need to revise your will and other estate plans, including some or all of the following:

• A review of your life insurance needs;
• A revised plan for retirement benefits;
• A household budget for one, not two persons;
• An investment plan that is relatively conservative, depending on your age, emphasizing security of principal over high return;
• A comprehensive estate plan that includes a will, or a will and a living trust.

On a personal level, you should consider support groups for widows and widowers that are organized in many communities through hospitals, churches and governmental and civic agencies.  You should certainly seek out the support of friends, clergy and family members during this time.

Parents with young families typically make provision in their wills for appointment of guardians in case their children became orphaned before reaching adulthood.  Courts will also appoint guardians for adults who lack the capacity to handle personal and/or financial matters, due to disability. 

There are two types of guardians:  the guardian of the person, who attends to the personal care of the ward, and the estate guardian, who handle the ward’s financial affairs.  Having an estate guardian can often be a cumbersome, costly and time-consuming situation – but it does offer the protection of court supervision.

A better idea?  Ask your advisers about establishing a power of attorney that names a trusted person to handle your financial affairs in the event you become disabled.  Another flexible alternative is a revocable living trust, where you serve as initial trustee but with a “standby” trustee who would handle your finances if you are unable.

Many of our supporters have found life insurance to be an ideal vehicle for making a substantial gift, either during life or at death.  What’s attractive about life insurance is that you can leave as much or as little of a policy to support our future and have the rest pass to family members.

You can name us as a co-beneficiary of a policy with a member of your family – 40% for our benefit and 60% to a family member, for example.  Or we can be a contingent beneficiary to take the proceeds only if your primary beneficiary (such as a husband or wife) dies before you. The full amount we receive will qualify for a deduction against state or federal estate taxes.

It’s easy to make us a beneficiary of your life insurance:  Just call the company that issued the policy and ask for a new beneficiary form.  No legal fees or other costs are involved.  Note:  Some of our friends own “surplus” life insurance policies that are no longer needed for family security.  If that’s your situation, consider bringing new life to that old policy by making us the owner and beneficiary of the policy.  Your gift will qualify for a 2011 income tax charitable deduction.  Please call our Office of Gift Planning at 800-843-8114 for more information.

Amundsen, Peary and Scott were world-famous polar explorers.  They probably wouldn’t qualify as experts on retirement planning, but they did know something about surviving in a difficult environment...and a remarkable tool called a cache.  Caches were simply points along the polar exploration routes where expeditions would bury food and supplies in the snow.  Caches allowed the explorers to lighten their load during the first part of the journey and also insured there would be adequate provisions on the return trip.

The concept of a cache makes sense in planning for your retirement.  You can lighten your tax load considerably during your high-income years by “caching” some stock or cash with us now in the form of a deferred payment charitable gift annuity. A deferred payment gift annuity is simply a contract in which you exchange cash or securities for a fixed income for life – starting in some future year that you designate (usually the year you expect to retire).  Deferring the start of your annual payments increases the amounts you will receive annually.  Your charitable deduction is magnified, as well.  Interested?  Call our Office of Gift Planning at 800-843-8114 for details.