PG Calc Blog

BDQ #12: What Is a Net Income CRUT (and Why Do We Need So Many Letters)?

Craig Wruck — Thu, 06 Aug 2026 14:18:01 GMT

If you’ve spent more than five minutes around planned giving, you’ve probably noticed our love affair with acronyms. CRATs, CRUTs, NIMCRUTs, NICRUTs, Flip CRUTs – it sounds less like charitable giving and more like a bowl of alphabet soup served by an angry robot.

Let’s consider a question that trips up donors, fundraisers, and even seasoned financial planners alike: What on earth is a Net Income Charitable Remainder Unitrust (NICRUT) – or its fraternal twin a NIMCRUT for that matter – and how does it differ from a Standard CRUT or a CRAT?

The Gift That Almost Didn’t Happen

Gary Pforzheimer — Tue, 14 Jul 2026 14:22:00 GMT

Complex assets represent a growing share of donor wealth. Most institutions aren’t set up to accept them, and the cost is largely invisible.

A longtime donor is ready to make the largest gift of her relationship with your institution. The asset is a stake in a closely held business she’s preparing to sell. She’s motivated, the timing is right, and she’s asking for help.

What happens next depends on whether your institution has the infrastructure to say yes.

At many advancement shops, the path forward stalls. The gift acceptance committee meets. Legal gets involved. Weeks pass. The donor grows uncertain. The business sells and the proceeds flow somewhere else, through a third-party sponsor with no connection to your institution.

No one declined the gift intentionally. The institution simply wasn’t built to accept it.

New Jersey Accepts Actuarial Verification of Washington State Reserve Reports

Kara Morin — Mon, 22 Jun 2026 14:20:00 GMT

As we reported in our January blog post, New Jersey reinstated an old regulation to require actuarial verification of New Jersey state reserve reports IF a charity offers flexible deferred gift annuities (FGAs). This requirement is enforced even if the charity has never issued an FGA, as long as they are marketing the gift vehicle.

In a stunning update, New Jersey has now decided that it will accept a Washington state reserve report that has been verified by an actuary, provided that it is submitted with an unverified New Jersey or New York state reserve report and a NJ certificate of valuation.

The State of Play: Navigating the Current Landscape of QCD Legislation and DAF Regulations

Craig Wruck — Mon, 15 Jun 2026 14:44:19 GMT

For planned giving officers, staying abreast of the shifting sands in Washington is an operational necessity. As we cross the midpoint of 2026, the regulatory and legislative environment surrounding Qualified Charitable Distributions (QCD) and donor-advised funds (DAFs) seems stuck in familiar duality: a flurry of introduced concepts coupled with a deeply gridlocked path forward.

BDQ #11: What Is the IRS Discount Rate, and Why Does It Change Every Single Month?

Craig Wruck — Tue, 12 May 2026 17:12:00 GMT

If you have ever run a calculation for a charitable gift annuity (CGA) or a charitable remainder trust (CRT), you have seen a specific number – usually somewhere between 4% and 6% – labeled as the “IRS Discount Rate” or the “Section 7520 Rate.” (Some planned giving connoisseurs like to call it the “CMFR.”) For many of us, this is just a mysterious number that suddenly appears to determine how much of an income tax deduction our donors get.

In simple terms, the 7520 rate is the IRS’s way of saying, “If the donor kept this money and invested it themselves, this is the interest rate we assume they would earn.” But where does this Discount Rate come from, and why is it so restless?

Respect for the Deceased: Your Final Obligations When a CGA Terminates at Death

Kara Morin — Wed, 15 Apr 2026 14:15:08 GMT

While some charitable gift annuities (CGAs) are voluntarily terminated by annuitants, either for a charitable deduction or a lump sum payout, the vast majority of CGAs terminate with the death of the final annuitant. When this happens, the charity must fulfill their final contractual obligation to the CGA’s donor, which is to distribute the residuum to the charitable purpose. Here’s our recommended list of steps that should be completed before releasing the gift.

Make This Your Last Year for PIF K-1s

Kara Morin — Thu, 12 Mar 2026 14:23:00 GMT

Each year at this time, charities with pooled income fund (PIF) programs start receiving calls and emails from PIF beneficiaries who are agitated by the perceived “lateness” of their Form K-1 (by law, PIF K-1s are not due until April 15). Many beneficiaries receive fairly modest PIF incomes, and it is not uncommon for a PIF beneficiary to be waiting on a K-1 only to learn that their reportable annual income is less than $100. In the Venn diagram of PIF beneficiaries who receive scant annual income and also get angry about the perceived K-1 delay, there is an opportunity to present a voluntary severance from the PIF.

The RMD: Timing Is Everything

abrown@pgcalc.com (Amy M. Brown) — Tue, 17 Feb 2026 14:30:17 GMT

Does the timing of the first RMD for a 73-year-old matter?

A question from a client came up about a donor who was turning 73 in the calendar year using their Individual Retirement Account (IRA) to fund a charitable gift. Would a qualified charitable distribution (QCD) taken in the year the donor turns 73 but before the donor’s actual 73rd birthday count toward the Required Minimum Distribution (RMD) for that year? For instance, can a donor turning 73 on December 31st establish a QCD charitable gift annuity (CGA) on December 1st and still have it count toward their RMD?

Plan Your Postmark: Operational Changes at USPS Can Affect Gift Dates

abrown@pgcalc.com (Amy M. Brown) — Fri, 13 Feb 2026 15:27:55 GMT

In 2025 the US Post Office made a quiet shift in its operations that resulted in some gifts handed to the US Post Office on December 30th and 31st being postmarked in January. Donors and charities should be aware of this change, as the mailbox rule to establish a gift date for a mailed check relates to when the postmark is applied not when the US Post Office came in possession of the mail.

Mail deposited in mailboxes, retail locations, and US Post Offices is sent to central processing facilities for sorting. Even though the US Postal Service (USPS) has possession of the mail, the postmark is not usually applied until the mail reaches a processing facility. In 2025 the US Post Office made changes to its transportation operations which no longer guarantee that mail deposited in a mailbox or handed to a postal worker at a retail post office will arrive at a processing facility on the same day. This means mail that is simply dropped off in a mailbox or US Post Office may not be postmarked for a day or two until it reaches the processing facility. As a result, the date on the postmark applied at a processing facility will not necessarily match the date on which a letter was collected by a letter carrier, handed over the counter to a post office employee, or dropped in a mailbox.

New Jersey Is Inflexible on Flexible Gift Annuities

Kara Morin — Wed, 14 Jan 2026 15:00:23 GMT

New Jersey is requiring actuarial verification of state reserve reports as part of a charity’s gift annuity annual reporting if the charity offers flexible gift annuities (FGAs). If your charity has a pending application, you will need to add an actuarial verification of your New Jersey reserve calculations if you offer FGAs. Charities that are already registered in New Jersey will need actuarial verification of their state reserve report as part of their annual filings if they offer FGAs.