(Formerly Standard 26)
PGTS Standard
47. The governing board or appropriate committee is advised of all revocations of trust agreements. Such action is recorded in the minutes of the governing board or appropriate committee. [PGTS]
Every planned gift will come to an end at some point in the future. Revocable planned gifts may be canceled or changed before maturity. When a trust agreement is revoked the governing board or committee must be informed so they are kept abreast of how many trust documents the organization is responsible for, and the potential fiduciary duties it has committed to.
A revocation may be the result of recognizing the fact that a family has moved and now has new documents in a different state. This can be a good thing in that your organization is being notified that the documents in your vault are no longer valid. There may not be as much stress or emotion involved in a revocation, but you should still want to give the best possible service to these donors. At some point in the future they may return to your area and return their documents to your office.
If your office is dealing with a donor during a revocation you want to make sure you do everything just right since this tends 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 revocations 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 significant requests and actions for each trust 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 revocations 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 are included when the agenda is finalized for the committee.
Those organizations that review and approve revocation requests, 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 the routine items may be placed on the consent agenda and approved in one vote.
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.