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The National Association of Charitable Gift Planners provides Charitable Life Insurance Evaluation Guidelines: A Tool for Charitable Gift Planners to help evaluate the ethics, legality and charitable intent of insurance gifting plans. The Guidelines serve as a supplement to the Model Standards of Practice for the Charitable Gift Planner.

The guidelines do not judge the merits of particular types of life insurance gifts. Rather, they suggest appropriate steps for gift planners and donor advisors to take when exploring the viability of a diverse array of charitable insurance applications.

Former PPP president and CEO Tanya Howe Johnson observed that the number of insurance programs being aggressively marketed has grown exponentially over the last few years. “Virtually every charitable gift planner has been approached with a charitable life insurance proposal,” said Johnson.

“These proposals go well beyond the tried and true uses of life insurance in charitable giving. We hope these guidelines will provide a valuable resource for charities that are searching for an authoritative source on this subject.”

Craig Wruck, who chaired the task force charged with creating this report, noted that the legislative climate also calls for organizational diligence. “Legislation designed to crack down on charity-owned life insurance policies (CHOLI) has already been enacted. The Partnership’s work begins a new era of careful vetting of insurance programs. We hope it will help charitable gift planners avoid some of the pitfalls congressional charitable reformers are most concerned about.”  

The Insurance Gift Guidelines Task Force included members with various gift planning specializations and expertise with charitable gifts of insurance.