FundSvcs Community

How do institutions handle this situation?  A faculty member signed a letter of intent for bequest intention this year, when they were too young for the BI to be recorded as a pledge.  It was written as a percentage of the estate, with a specific estimated value.  The donor passed away several months later.  

The surviving spouse intends to fulfil the commitment, and is pacing out the payments according to a schedule set by the surviving spouse.  

All involved want to be sure that the spirit of the LOI/BI is fulfilled in the name of the now deceased donor.  In practical terms, the payments will come from the surviving spouse.  

a) Is there any scenario that you would record the BI pledge for the too-young individual, now that they are deceased?  I don't see this in the CASE standards.  We generally do not record gifts or pledges from deceased entities.  But a pledge would allow the payments to be recorded in fulfilment of the BI as pledge payments. 

b) Without a pledge, the tendancy would be to record payments from the surviving spouse as straight gifts.  But since their purpose is in alignment with the LOI, might they be "realized bequests"?  Does it depend on what the check/ACH says? 

Your insights/experiences with this are welcome.  

Assuming that the payments are not coming from a legal trust, which would be a separate legal entity, then is it fair to state that you would be an advocate of recording this non-binding commitment on the record of the deceased as a straight pledge?  

Philosophically, my understanding is that BIs are not countable (for fundraising) for younger people because of life expectancy?  So once a person is deceased, it's no longer subject to "age" guidelines, because teh life expectancy issue has become a reality, correct? 

I also see the notation in your second response about the distinction between counting in fundraising totals and recording the expectancy.  It's been our practice not to record expectancies for too-young until the year that they turn 65.  But I see your point that with proper exclusions from fundraising totals, there is nothing preventing that.  

Thanks for your insights here!

Hi Meg, is this a situation were the donor signed a bequest intention form and passed before updating a will, naming the institution as a beneficiary on a TOD or retirement account or some other estate planning vehicle; and the surviving spouse is merely upholding the wishes of their spouse?   If they are giving a specific amount, I would hard credit the surviving spouse record for a pledge and all payments. 

Michael