(Formerly Standard 27)
PGTS Standard
29. The governing board or appropriate committee is advised of each interim distribution from a mature trust or estate and is also advised of the final distribution and termination of each matured trust or estate. Such notification is recorded in the minutes of the governing board or appropriate committee. (NADWP S 40 65) [PGP, PGTS]
Donor-Centered Services
Every planned gift will come to an end at some point in the future. Revocable planned gifts may be canceled or changed before maturity, while with irrevocable planned gifts maturity is all that applies.
If your office is dealing with a donor’s family, during a maturity you want to make sure you do everything just right since these events tend to happen during a time of heightened stress and emotion. Communicating clearly, timely, and compassionately should be your goal, and not add any more stress to an already difficult situation. The standards dealing with maturities are designed to help your office give the best possible service to those who may be experiencing a time of difficult sensitivity.
Everything we do in PGTS must be transparent and subject to appropriate review. Voting all distributions for each trust or estate through the appropriate committee(s) and assuring the minutes reflect the actions clearly is very important to this transparency. These votes should be a routine part of your Trust Service operation.
As maturities and distributions are processed by your department the agenda for the next approving committee(s) should be updated. This will ensure all items that need to be voted on are included when the agenda is finalized for the committee.
COMMITTEE ADVISED OF DISTRIBUTIONS
The standard states the governing board is to be notified of final distributions and termination of a matured trust and estate. One may wonder if only reporting a final distribution will satisfy the requirement to report a termination. The short answer is no it will not, both the final distribution and the termination must be clearly stated. If a trust or estate has distributed all its assets one might infer it is effectively inoperative, but this may not always be the case. There may still be additional tasks that must be performed before the trust or estate is terminated. One good example of a task that may yet be undone is filing tax returns. If someone were to look at a trust or estate and see a final distribution has been made, but find no record of it being terminated, there may be a lingering question of whether everything has been completed. So, to remove any doubt whether all tasks have been completed, the standard requires it be clearly stated in the minutes of the governing board the final distribution has been made and the trust or estate has been terminated.
Those organizations that review and approve maturities and other actions through two approving committees, such as a Trust Management Committee (TMC) and a Board should go through the details of each transaction in the first committee, and then in the Board Committee, these routine items may be placed on the consent agenda and approved in one vote. I would suggest all maturity distributions be placed on the regular agenda to show the Board the fruit of the Planned Giving & Trust Services department that benefits the mission and ministry of your organization.
Once the Committee and Board have voted each item the final minutes must be prepared, reviewed by the director or associate, and signed as accurate. At the next meeting of the Committee and/or Board the minutes must be reviewed, and approval voted. The minutes should be organized so they may be conveniently found for review in the future.