Has the “Great Wealth Transfer” Finally Begun? Reading the Tea Leaves in the 2026 Giving USA Report
The headlines following release of the Giving USA 2026 Annual Report on Philanthropy have been decidedly upbeat for a change. “U.S. Giving Hits $617 billion,” trumpeted the news, accompanied by celebrations of a 3% growth in total giving and a remarkable 17% surge in charitable bequests. Although still short of the 2021 total of $661 billion, the 2025 numbers landed as a breath of fresh air for planned giving officers who endured the tumultuous post-pandemic dips and rocky inflationary markets of recent years. And, some pundits are already boldly proclaiming that the long-anticipated “Great Wealth Transfer” has officially kicked off.
But before we stretch banners across the street and launch a parade celebrating that our fundraising goals will effortlessly take care of themselves, it is worth pausing to look past the top-line celebratory hoopla. As we’ve noted in years past: the real value of the Giving USA Report lies not in its function as an annual scoreboard, but rather in its capacity to illuminate long-term trends, expose underlying structural shifts, and point toward data-informed insights for smart fundraising.
Quick Tip: Remember the Importance of Half Birthdays
From the Blog: The Gift That Almost Didn’t Happen
Also From the Blog: New Jersey Accepts Actuarial Verification of Washington State Reserve Reports
Personal Connection Matters
Three Questions From Our FASB Training
New York Maximum Annuity Rates Higher for July - December 2026
Bring Your Beignets and Join Us for an In-Person Training Before the CGP National Conference in New Orleans
PG Calc Webinar: Bequests Gone Bad: Ten Ways to Lose Your Charitable Bequest
Your planned giving staff has secured a wonderful planned gift commitment from a generous donor. The donor is well stewarded over the years. Now the donor has passed, but that hard-won bequest is nowhere to be seen. This session will explore ten ways that bequests can “go bad,” including undue influence, lost documents, misnamed charities, handwritten edits, caretaker claims, and tax apportionment problems. Andrew Fussner, Vice President of Estate Settlement at the American Heart Association, will show attendees not only how to learn to identify these potential problems, but also proactive and reactive ways to avoid and deal with them.
Quick Tip: Remember the Importance of Half Birthdays
A potential new gift annuity donor says she is 79. You create an illustration in PGM Anywhere for a $100,000 gift annuity with a 79-year-old annuitant. The results: annual payments of $7,800 and a $44,918 charitable deduction.
But when you enter the donor’s exact date of birth, the illustration shows an age of 80, annual payments of $8,100, and a $45,415 charitable deduction.
So, which set of calculations is correct?
It turns out that in the world of gift annuities and other planned gifts that last for the lives of one or more beneficiaries, a donor’s age is based on her CLOSEST birthday on the date of gift. If her LAST birthday is less than 6 months prior to the gift date, that is the relevant date for measuring her age. But, if her NEXT birthday is within 6 months of the gift date, THAT is the relevant date for measuring her age.
There is a specific date, exactly halfway between those two birthdays, that marks the point at which the donor is considered a year older. We sometimes refer to this as the “half birthday.” When the gift date is before a beneficiary’s half birthday, her last birthday is closest. When the gift date is after a beneficiary’s half birthday, her next birthday is closest.
You can reassure your donor that, in these situations, it is a GOOD thing to be considered a year older. For this case in particular, the age of 80 entitles the donor to a payout rate of 8.1%, as compared to a payout rate of 7.8% for someone who is “only” 79.
Contact Client Services at 888-474-2252 or support@pgcalc.com if you have any questions.
From the Blog: The Gift That Almost Didn’t Happen
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. Read the blog post . . .
Also From the Blog: New Jersey Accepts Actuarial Verification of Washington State Reserve Reports
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. Read the blog post . . .
We rely heavily these days on technology for cell phones, email, social media, and now artificial intelligence. Often technology makes communication and research more efficient, although AI is far from perfect. While technology is working to improve communication and efficiency, I recently was reminded of the impact of personal connections.
I was drafting a long email to respond to a client question, and I wanted to provide as much detail as possible to cover all the bases. As my drafted response approached the length of a novella, I decided to call the client instead. I know we are expecting that more AI and other technology will improve our efficiency, but honestly my simple 3-minute phone call to clarify what the client needed saved me (and them) at least 20 minutes of an email exchange. I still sent a follow-up email, but the email was more relevant and concise after the phone call with the client.
Clients often remind me that they appreciate speaking with a live person. Phone calls help develop rapport with clients and assure the clients that assistance is readily available. A phone call can often lead to more questions and better answers for the clients.
We cannot stop the infiltration of technology into our work, but we can work to reconnect with donors, clients, and colleagues in person. We know that scheduling an in-person meeting with a donor can help personalize the donation process and increase their sense of connection. I’ve found the same benefit in attending professional conferences and in-person trainings. They help bring people together in a way phone calls and video calls just cannot. And of course shaking hands, sharing hugs, and sitting down to a meal together improves the personal connection with friends and family. It encourages conversation about things outside the office, such as sports, children, pets, vacations, etc. Finding a common interest helps folks remember the conversations and makes connecting again that much easier.
Email is an efficient way to share information, and video meetings are a way of life. But making that personal connection is important for donors and colleagues and essential for maintaining our humanity. Don’t wait for the “right moment” to connect with donors and colleagues or family and friends . . . just pick up the phone or sit down for a cup of coffee to make that personal connection.
Three Questions From Our FASB Training
In June, we offered online training on how to run FASB liability reports in GiftWrap. We run this training each June because so many of our clients have a June 30 fiscal year-end. It is a great opportunity for clients to ask their FASB and GiftWrap questions right as they head into reporting season. Here are three of the top questions from our training.
1. What is the best mortality table for running FASB reports?
Because the liability for your planned giving program is based on how many years your organization will be paying your annuitants and charitable trust beneficiaries, the choice of the correct mortality table is key.
Fans of the eRate already know that PG Calc recommends the 2012 IAR mortality table. This is the most conservative mortality table available, meaning it projects the longest lives for the annuitants and life income beneficiaries. It is an insurance industry table and has gendered life expectancies, predicting longer lives for women than for men.
2. Should I use each gift’s IRS discount rate or a single discount rate for all gifts?
The individual liability for each life income gift should go down as your annuitants and income beneficiaries age. This will happen if your organization computes each of these liabilities using an interest rate equal to the IRS discount rate used to compute each gift’s charitable value. Depending on the age of your program, this means the interest rate used to compute individual liabilities could range from 0.4% (the November 2020 IRS discount rate) to 11.6% (the May 1989 IRS discount rate). While this practice is accepted by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA), it can nonetheless feel wrong to your finance team, who may see a wide swing in liabilities depending on when gifts were made without understanding why that is natural.
If your finance team decides that they prefer liabilities to be computed using a single interest rate, once selected, that interest rate should never change. This will produce the same effect as using the gift’s IRS discount rate. It will illustrate individual liabilities going down as annuitants and life income beneficiaries age. The AICPA Audit Guide also approves of the single interest rate approach, provided that once the interest rate is selected, it is never revised.
3. If we choose a single interest rate, what is the correct rate to choose?
This type of decision needs to be made thoughtfully by your finance team. In talking with our clients, we’ve seen a few different approaches to selecting a single interest rate.
Some organizations report that they use the same rate they use to discount secured bequest intentions (also known as pledges against the estate). The reasoning is that this treats like with like, as both gifts are realized at death. Others have selected the average historical payout rate of their endowment, leaving them with a discount rate in the range of 4%-5%. Other organizations report using the average rate at which they have historically been able to borrow money for capital projects. The reasoning goes that if they had to buy out all their CGA contracts at once, they would borrow money to do so.
These reasons have a common thread of tying the FASB liability report to other financial reporting decisions or practices. But again, once your finance team has chosen a single interest rate, you should “fix it and forget it,” using that same rate year after year for all your gifts. If at some point your finance team wishes to revise the interest rate for computing FASB liabilities, a note should be added to the report of FASB liabilities that acknowledges the change, explains why it was made, and describes its effect on the liabilities.
New York Maximum Annuity Rates Higher for July - December 2026
On July 1, New York published updated single life maximum annuity rates that apply to gift annuities issued to New York residents from July 1, 2026 through December 31, 2026. New York has increased the interest rate for determining its maximum rates from 6.00% to 6.50%. This increase assures that New York’s maximum one-life immediate annuity rates remain substantially higher than the corresponding maximum rates suggested by the American Council on Gift Annuities (ACGA) at all ages. The same is true for all two-life immediate annuity rates, one-life deferred annuity rates, and two-life deferred annuity rates we have tested.
We have not identified any instance where the New York maximum annuity rate is lower than the ACGA rate, however, it is not practical for us to test all possible two-life and deferral period combinations. If you have a New York donor and you would like to confirm the ACGA rate is lower than the New York maximum rate, contact support@pgcalc.com for help with this determination.
In general, charities can continue to offer ACGA rates to gift annuity and deferred gift annuity donors in New York through December 31, 2026, confident that they will not be exceeding New York’s limits on gift annuity rates.
Bring Your Beignets and Join Us for an In-Person Training Before the CGP National Conference in New Orleans
When: Wednesday, October 14, 9:00 am - 4:00 pm ET Where: New Orleans Marriott, 555 Canal Street, New Orleans, LA, 70130
This full-day seminar explores gift planning beyond the basics. We will review advanced gift planning techniques including retained life estates, charitable lead trusts, and estate planning models using the flexible functionality of PGM Anywhere.
