Record death

Record Death

The Record Death routine adjusts person information to properly reflect a person's death. It also adjusts gift information where appropriate, including payment and tax information. See the Notes at the bottom for more information on the adjustments this routine may make.

1. Open the Person Information of the person whose death you want to record. $image\chiclet.gif$ How?

2. Click $image\death.gif$ at the top of the Person Information screen.

3. Enter the person's date of death, then click Go.

Information on all gifts of which the person is an active beneficiary will be displayed in a grid, one gift per row.

4. Review the information displayed on each gift and enter information as appropriate.

If a gift has a successor beneficiary, indicate whether or not payments should continue to that successor beneficiary (see Payments to Successor column).
If a gift will be terminating because of the death, indicate the date of last entitled payment, the last payment the deceased was entitled to receive (see Date of Last Entitled Payment column).
Where applicable, click the Prorate Final Check box to indicate that the amount of the final payment to the deceased will be based on the number of days the he or she was alive during the final payment period. You will then also need to enter the date of the final check. See the Prorate Last Check column.

5. Click the Check Inputs button.

If the information you have entered is consistent, a message will appear below the grid that invites you to click Continue. Click the Continue button.
If there are any problems with the information you have entered, a message in red will appear below the grid that explains the nature of the problem. You must then revise this information and click the Check Inputs button again before you will be allowed to continue to the next step.
If there are problems with the information you have entered, note whether any payments have been issued to the deceased after each gift's date of last entitled payment (see Issued payments after last payment must be voided column). If so, click the Issued Pmt Log button to produce a list of all of these payments, then click the Print button in the Issued Pmt Log to print this list. You must then cancel Record Death and void these payments before you will be allowed to complete recording the death. When done, run Record Death again.

6. Click the Continue button and review the information now displayed in the grid for each gift.

Review the Account Closed and Credit Through dates shown for gifts that will terminate because of the death and revise them as needed. These dates will be stored in the Details tab of each gift. See Page Help for explanations of Account Closed and Credit Through dates.
For terminating gift annuities, any undistributed investment in contract will be listed in the Undistributed Investment in Contract column. This amount will be stored in the Details tab of each gift.

7. If the Final Log button is available, click it and review the Final Log. When done, click the Continue button. Otherwise, skip to step 8.

The Final Log contains information about each gift that may require follow-up once Record Death has completed its adjustments.
If there is an undistributed investment in contract reported for any gifts, you may want to print the Final Log as a way to report these amounts to the executor of the deceased's estate. These amounts are deductible on the deceased's final income tax return.
Click the Print button to print the Final Log. Click the Print to File button to save the Final Log in a file with the name and location of your choice.

8. Click the Accept button.

9. Click the Continue button.

Notes:

· Record Death adjusts the deceased person's status and date of death in his or her Person Information. Where appropriate, this routine also adjusts the information stored on gifts to which the deceased person is linked as an active beneficiary. This information may include gift status, account closed date, undistributed investment in contract, check information, and tax information.

· Record Death adjusts a terminating gift's status in its Gift Information. If a gift is terminating as a result of the death being recorded, the gift's status is changed from Current to Finished. The status of gifts of type Bequest or Outright are never changed from Current. Also, the status of a gift that is not terminating is left as Current.

· Record Death does its best to adjust payment information correctly for each gift of which the person is an active beneficiary. Similarly, it adjusts tax information, including any withheld amount, for the gift annuities of which the person is an active beneficiary. After completing the Record Death routine, however, you should review the payment and tax information for each of these gifts to confirm that it has made the adjustments you desire.

Record Death will inform you when it is unable to make payment and tax schedule adjustments automatically. In this case, print the Final Log for a list of the gifts whose payment and tax schedules you will need to adjust manually.

· Payments from associated gifts to the deceased person that are scheduled to occur after the date of death are deleted from the deceased's list of payments. For gift annuities only, tax information for the year of death is likewise adjusted based on the date of death, and tax information for all subsequent years is deleted.

· The account closed date entered by you for a terminating gift is stored in the Account Closed Date field in the Details tab of the Gift Information. This is the date that the gift's account is closed for purposes of making payments. While it is often the date of death, it might be, for example, the last day of the payment period during which the death occurred. The units of a pooled fund gift continue to receive distribution credit through the account closed date, for example.

· The credit through date entered by you for a terminating gift is stored in the Credit Through Date field in the Details tab of the Gift Information. The credit through date is used specifically in market value calculations. If the Valuation Date entered in the CashTrac CGA Market Values or Update PIF Market Values functions is greater than this date, the gift is not included in the market value calculations performed by the function.

· For GiftWrap clients who use the Pooled Fund Administration module, it can be especially critical to enter the correct account closed date for a pooled income fund gift. If the fund's governing trust document allows the remainderman charity to receive income for gifts that have terminated but whose assets remain in the fund, the account closed date selected will determine the cut-off date for income paid to the remainderman charity. This date also determines when the gift's units and market value will be distributed and therefore no longer included in fund totals. If the distribution of a terminating interest is pending, the account closed date should be set far in the future, for example 12/31/9999. Using this method, the income and units will remain in the fund account and participate in income distributions indefinitely. When the assets are finally removed from the fund, the account closed date for the terminated gift should be adjusted to reflect the date of removal.

Please note that the governing trust document for some pooled income funds precludes the remainderman charity from receiving income on terminations and calls for the termination value of the units to be determined according to their market value on the first valuation date succeeding the date of death. In these cases, the pooled income fund's setup screen should have the No income to remainderman checkbox marked and the account closed date should be set to the succeeding period end date.

· If you record the death of the final beneficiary of a pooled income fund gift and the fund is set up with a valid Person Key for Remainderman, Record Death will create a new Bene-R association between the gift and the remainderman's person record, as well as payment rows for the remainderman. Record Death will not create a Bene-R association in this situation if the fund is not set up with a valid Person Key for Remainderman.