Ethics and Standards

PRESS RELEASE

Charitable Life Insurance Evaluation Guidelines

(INDIANAPOLIS, Ind.—June 15, 2005)

The National Committee on Planned Giving® (NCPG) has released Charitable Life Insurance Evaluation Guidelines: A Tool for Charitable Gift Planners. The guidelines are designed to help evaluate the ethics, legality and charitable intent of insurance gifting plans, and will serve as a supplement to NCPG’s Model Standards of Practice for the Charitable Gift Planner.

The guidelines, posted on www.ncpg.org, do not judge the merits of any particular types of life insurance gifts, but rather, suggest appropriate steps for gift planners and donor advisors to take when exploring the viability of a diverse array of charitable insurance applications.

NCPG president and CEO Tanya Howe Johnson said the release of these guidelines is timely, as the number of insurance programs being aggressively marketed has grown exponentially over the last few years.

“Virtually every charitable gift planner has been approached with a charitable life insurance proposal,” said Johnson. “These proposals go well beyond the tried and true uses of life insurance in charitable giving. NCPG hopes these guidelines will provide a valuable resource for charities that are searching for an authoritative source on this subject.”

Craig Wruck, who chaired the task force charged with creating this report, said the current legislative climate calls for this kind of organizational diligence. “The Senate Finance Committee is on the cusp of creating what we anticipate will be the first truly sweeping charitable reform of the last four decades,” said Wruck.

“Senators Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and Max Baucus (D-MT) have already introduced legislation designed to crack down on charity-owned life insurance policies (CHOLI). NCPG’s work begins a new era of careful vetting of these types of offers, and will help charitable gift planners avoid some of the pitfalls congressional charitable reformers are most concerned about.”

The Insurance Gift Guidelines Task Force comprised appointed members with various gift planning specializations and expertise with charitable gifts of insurance.

To view the entire Charitable Life Insurance Evaluation Guidelines in pdf format, click here.