Ron Brown
Stories of our origins illuminate our professional mission today and help us prepare for tomorrow. Innovation, persistence, and intellectual achievement are hallmarks of our history. Hear and discuss events that made our careers possible: why a Yale scientist needed 18 months to complete America’s first gift annuity in 1831, with help from a New York attorney; how an actuary enabled U.S. charities to survive the Great Depression by using a model adapted from life insurance to set annuity rates, calculate tax implications, invest reserve funds effectively, and build support for effective Federal and state laws and regulations; why the Ways and Means Committee nearly killed charitable trusts as “un-American” in 1969, and how charities rallied to save the day.
Learning objectives:
1. Appreciate that making connections with the experience of gift planners in years past can deepen our understanding of our mission today.
2. Learn how the heroes of philanthropic planning solved a challenge by applying available tools in important new ways.
3. Understand what Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. meant in saying “The life of the law has not been logic; it has been experience.” Charitable gift plans precede legislation and regulation; they are not created by statutes.
1. Appreciate that making connections with the experience of gift planners in years past can deepen our understanding of our mission today.
2. Learn how the heroes of philanthropic planning solved a challenge by applying available tools in important new ways.
3. Understand what Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. meant in saying “The life of the law has not been logic; it has been experience.” Charitable gift plans precede legislation and regulation; they are not created by statutes.
CFRE: Approved for 1 point
CAP: Approved for 1 PACE credit
