Forbes Magazine into Planned Giving?

In Forbes Magazine’s upcoming 2012 Investment Guide, in their June 25, 2012 issue, you will find among various investment ideas an article on gift annuities!

Check it out:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/baldwin/2012/06/06/does-a-charitable-gift-annuity-make-tax-sense-for-you/

While the experts in the field will certainly have  pet peeves about parts of the article, it is very interesting and encouraging to see planned giving getting into a mainstream publication like this.  And, treated as an investment, no less!

Here are my quick comments:

  1. Someone needs to tell the author not to make statements like: “Consider yourself a prime candidate for investing with your college if:…”  It is a major “no no” in this business to refer to a gift annuity as an investment (however tempting it may be).
  2. I think the author mixed up gift annuities and charitable remainder trusts.  He fixated on a 5% yield in the beginning of the article – but that rate is part of the example for the charitable remainder trust that he talks about before giving an example of a gift annuity (the title of the article is Does  A Charitable Gift Annuity Make Tax Sense for You!).
  3. When he finally gets to the gift annuity example, he quotes a CGA payment rate of 6.2% for a 70 year old (offered by Harvard).  Sounds great except that the standard ACGA rate currently for a 70 year old is 5.1%.  A single donor won’t get 6.2% until age 77 for most charities issuing gift annuities today!  It is very important for most charities issuing CGAs today to stick with the ACGA rates – this article may end up being a real problem if donors show up with it and wonder why they can’t get rates like this.
So much for free press.
Please comment and I will forward to the Forbes writer!

 

One comment

  1. Your comments right on target: I have already had one donor ask about the rate based on the online version of this article and more likely when it is in print!

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