PG Calc Blog

In their January 2019 issue, Wired magazine reported the aggregation and publication of over 2 billion previously hacked unique usernames and passwords. These credentials are being made available to various hacker forums, potentially exposing the private data of a significant fraction of the world’s population. Analysts have determined that most of the stolen credentials represent data that is years old, and so may have already been remediated. However, the leak is still significant for the quantity of data, if not its currency.

Last year, Russell James, well-known expert in planned giving and Professor of Personal Financial Planning at Texas Tech University, presented a webinar sponsored by PG Calc entitled “Top 10 Gift Marketing Strategies from Scientific Research.” In this webinar, Dr. James presented research focusing on 10 “rules” for effective communications with prospective donors. What follows is a summary of his fascinating research. You may purchase a recording of the webinar on the PG Calc website.

For almost 30 years, the IRS has announced each month the interest rate for computing the deduction for gift annuities, charitable remainder trusts, and most other split interest gifts. We call this rate the IRS discount rate. The donor has the option to use the rate for the month of gift or either of the two previous months.

Question: When Is a Charitable IRA Rollover not a rollover? Answer: Never! Or - Always! Say what? Read on! The so-called “Charitable IRA Rollover” goes back to 2006, where it started out as a temporary provision in the Pension Protection Act of 2006. The provision expired at the end of 2007, but it was then reinstated retroactively for 2008. Over the next several years, the provision would be allowed to expire multiple times and was then reinstated, sometimes retroactively. This caused a great degree of uncertainty and rendered strategic planning around the provision quite difficult. The 2015 Tax Act (Protecting Americans from Tax Hikes or “PATH”) finally made the provision permanent.

The IRS has announced proposed regulations to address a technical, but potentially very important issue for taxpayers who make large taxable gifts during 2018-2025. The 2017 Tax Act nearly doubled the unified gift and estate tax exemption from $5,600,000 to $11,180,000. However, absent extending legislation, the doubling will expire at the end of 2025 and the exemption will go back to being computed the way it was prior to the 2017 Tax Act. Any of the increased exemption not used before it expires will be lost. This brings us to the technical part of the discussion.