Overview

President Bush signed the Pension Protection Act of 2006 (ACT) into law on Thursday, August 17, 2006 which included an IRA charitable gift provision.  During the rest of 2006 and all of 2007 individuals who are over 70 1/2 can make a gift to charity directly from their IRAs.  IRA gifts up to $100,000 are not taxable and qualify as all or part of the required minimum distribution.

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We are happy to announce that Karen Layland has accepted the position of Director of Communications for Barnabas Foundation. Karen is returning after spending 3 years as Vice President of Marketing at Bible League. In addition to Barnabas Foundation and Bible League, Karen has also worked for CRC Publications, ABC Radio, and other communication and marketing organizations. We are especially pleased that due to her prior employment with us she will begin this new position with a good understanding of our organization and how to effectively communicate our mission to our constituents.

In this newly restructured position, Karen will have responsibility for increasing the effectiveness of our communications with clients and member organizations as well as crafting and disseminating the message of biblical financial principles to Christians across the country.

We see great opportunity to increase the number of people we serve both in estate planning and in tax-efficient charitable giving. We also see an increasing need to help churches teach and encourage biblical financial principles among their members.

Survey of Christian Reformed Churches

Several respondents to our recent Survey of Christian Reformed Churches have asked for the Summary of Findings in electronic form so they can share the information with other members of their churches.  To use this file you will need the Adobe Acrobat Reader.

     Click here to download the Church Survey PDF file.

For deferred gift annuities, the compound interest rate during the deferral period will be increased from 5.0% to 5.25%.

For a more detailed explanation from the ACGA or for a copy of the gift annuity rate tables, please visit the ACGA website at www.acga-web.org

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American Council on Gift Annuities 233 McCrea Street, Suite 400 Indianapolis, Indiana 46225

We have added an attorney to our Estate Planning staff, Amy Bakker Baty. Amy joins Steve Baker in our Michigan office and comes to us after being in private practice for 17 years. Amy is a graduate of Grand Valley State University with a Bachelors of Business Administration degree and University of Illinois College of law with a Juris Doctorate. Most recently she has been a partner in the firm of McNeil, Karafa, Baty & Saunders, LLP, Grand Haven, Michigan where she focused her practice on estate planning and probate administration. She is joining Barnabas Foundation because of a strong passion to use her legal skills in an organization where she can be more focused on work that has a Kingdom impact.

We are thankful that God has led Amy to Barnabas Foundation and are excited about the contribution her enthusiasm, energy and expertise will bring to our team. 

With the addition of Amy to our planning staff, Sue Raines, our administrative assistant in Grand Rapids, has transitioned from part-time to full-time. We are pleased that Sue was able to do this as part of serving our member organizations and their supporters more effectively.

 

The new address and phone numbers are:
                               4843 Cascade Rd SE Ste 3
                               Grand Rapids, MI 49546-3781
                               Phone: 616-956-1232
                               Fax: 616-956-3440

We are planning to hold an open house in April to allow you to visit our new office and meet Amy. We look forward to seeing many of you that day. More details will follow.