News from the Foundation
2009
- Annual Report 2008-2009 (Sept.)
- Weathering A Recession (Sept.)
- New Planed Giving Page (July)
- $100 Winner! (June)
- Performance Results out for May
- Conference Center Furlough (May)
- The Market in Review (February)
2008
- Year End Investment Performance Information (Dec 31.)
- Holiday Schedule (December)
- Financial Uncertainty (November)
- Important News about Charitable IRAs (October)
- A Letter from Golub LLC (September)
- Bear Stearns/JP Morgan (August)
- Donor Insight: A guide for Christian Stewards (June)
- Bear Stearns (April)
Annual Report 2008-2009 - September
See the exciting ways churches are using endowment funds, getting help with capital campaigns and signing up for the Foundation’s Enduring Gifts Sundays. It’s all in our Annual Report!
In addition, read about the Foundation Services, how we spend our money and information on our investment portfolios.
Weathering a Recession - September
Annual Conference is now in our past. It was such a successful meeting of minds committed to making disciples of Jesus Christ for everyone in attendance. The theme, Passion in Christ, Compassion for All, was felt throughout the four days. If you missed the Conference, be sure to plan to attend next year.
At the Annual Conference, your United Methodist Foundation was there to help churches and individuals understand how it can help in promoting higher levels of stewardship through planned giving, endowments, and capital campaigns. We also introduced our newest booklet entitled Weathering a Recession and distributed approximately 600 copies. This booklet, developed by the Foundation’s Capital Campaign Team, lists 16 concrete ideas any congregation can use to support one another and your church. If you did not receive a copy, stop by our offices in West Sacramento or Santa Rosa for a free copy. If you cannot stop by either location:
New Planned Giving Web Page! - July
The Foundation is excited about our Planned Giving web page that provides planned giving options for individual United Methodist donors to fulfill charitable goals by creating legacies for the churches they love. We offer a wide variety of planned gift opportunities for the consideration of donors and their professional advisors, as well as provide planned gift and trust administration services.
$100 Winner! - June/July 2009
At Annual Conference the United Methodist Foundation had folks dropping by their booth to put their business cards in our fishbowl hoping for the opportunity to win the $100 Cokesbury Gift Certificate. The drawing was
held Friday immediately after the morning session recessed for lunch. Board Director Reverend Charles Smith of Nevada City UMC pulled the winning ticket.
Earl Armantrout, husband of Pastor Pamela Coy-Armantrout of the Mt Shasta UMC, was the lucky winner. Earl went right up to Cokesbury and put the certificate to good use. You may have seen him at booth #1 reading his new book on Saturday!
Congratulations, Earl!
Performance Results are out for May!
The performance of our investment managers for the month of May and year-to-date are ready for your review. Click on this link to see the “Investment Manager's Returns 2003-2009 Historical Data” as well as the detail information on each of the three major Portfolios.
We invite you to contact us if you would like to add funds to your portfolio or to set up a fund with the Foundation. If you have questions, please contact:
- Cheri Kraus, Trust Administrator, 800-863-8750 or cksrca@aol.com or
- Celeste Maia Cron, Executive Director, at 888-789-7374 or celestec@canumf.org
- The Santa Rosa Trust Administration Office will be closed from December 22nd through January 2nd. For urgent account issues or year end contributions, you may call Cheri Kraus at 707-328-3296 (Cell) or cksrca@aol.com
- The West Sacramento Office will be close from December 24th through January 2nd. For all other urgent issues, You may call Celeste Maia Cron at 530-304-5524 (Cell) or celestec@canvumf.org
- Nelson Capital Management will continue to be the investment manager for the Charitable Remainder Trusts and the Charitable Gift Annuities. In addition, Nelson Capital Management will be the asset manager of one-half of the Equity Portfolio. Nelson Capital has had a fine history with us for the past ten years. They are managing your portfolios well with very acceptable returns, primarily meeting or exceeding their benchmarks. Their focus is to provide a disciplined “growth-at-a-reasonable price” (“GARP”) core equity investment strategy.
- On June 25, 2008 we signed an agreement with The Golub Group of San Mateo as our second asset manager. They will manage the Asset Allocation and Intermediate Horizon Portfolios as well as onehalf of the Equity Portfolio. Their focus is to provide a disciplined risk aversion investment strategy.
- Vanguard will handle the Short Horizon Portfolio until further notice. We will be contacting clients who have elected to have their funds in the Short Horizon Portfolio to ascertain if that is the most appropriate portfolio for them and what their alternatives are if they wish to stay in a portfolio that is focused on low risk and low reward while maintaining capital and liquidity.
- When should I give?
- What kinds of things can I give?
- Can I give and still receive income from my gift?
- How can I give so that my pledge lives forever?
- How can I give to United Methodist causes that are close to my heart?
Conference Center Furlough (May 2009)
As you may be aware, the Conference Center staff and others will have a furlough day the last Friday of each month through October. The furlough days for November and December are to be determined.
The Annual Conference’s plan is to completely shut down the Conference Center in West Sacramento to save energy costs as well. In order to honor this plan, the staff working out of the West Sacramento office of the CA-NV UM Foundation will not be in attendance at the Conference Center during these furlough days. We will be working remotely from our homes or church work sites. Please use our cell phones as listed below should you need to contact us during those “last Fridays of the month” when the center is closed. We will be checking our office email as well. Cheri Kraus, in our Santa Rosa office, will remain open per her normal working hours on those Fridays.
The Market in Review (February 2009)
The following excerpts are printed with permission from Jonathan K. DeYoe, DeYoe Wealth Management, Weekly Commentary of January 5th, 2009. If you wish to read the entire report contact Celeste.
Note that 2008 stocks' underperformance resulted in wiping out all gains made back 10 years.
"STOCKS SUFFERED MIGHTILY"
Global stock markets shed about $30 trillion in market value over the past 12 months. Of that, about $7 trillion came from losses in the U.S. market, according to Bloomberg.com. In fact, the drop in the S&P 500 index was the worst annual loss since the Great Depression. Also according to Bloomberg.com, Tunisia was the only country out of 69 monitored by MSCI Inc. that saw a stock market gain in 2008. When it came to stocks, there was virtually no place to hide.
| Returns through 12/31/08 | 1-Year |
3-Year |
5-Year |
10-Year |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Year End Schedule - December 2008
The CA-NV United Methodist Foundation will have the following Holiday schedule:
November 2008
Financial Uncertainty
I am sure those of you accessing our website have questions about what the financial markets are doing. What is happening? When will it settle down? Are we headed for a full recession? When is the right time to invest more in the market?
None of us has answers for you. Anyone who thinks they know what is going to happen in the short run is only guessing. There will always be ups and downs in the market from day to day, or even month to month, some of them more serious and frightening than others. History tells us that the stock market has always outperformed other investments in the long run. The important thing that we must keep in mind is that your accounts with the Foundation are in for the long term. Our investment managers tend to outperform the S & P 500 in both up and down markets. Although no one can predict short-term events in the market, conventional wisdom indicates that you should do what you have been doing and wait out this roller coaster period in which we find ourselves.
Feel free to access this website and click here to see the most current investment managers’ reports.
May you receive peace from our creator during these turbulent times,
October 2008
IMPORTANT NEWS ABOUT CHARITABLE IRA’s
Charitable IRA Rollover Extended
As part of the $700 billion economic bailout bill (H.R. 1424) which was signed by the President on Friday, October 3, 2008, Congress included a two-year extension of the IRA Rollover provision. This provision is retroactive to January 1, 2008, and will apply to gifts made from that date through December 31, 2009.
Specifically, the IRA Rollover allows donors to donate up to $100,000 annually from their traditional or Roth IRAs tax free to charitable causes. Rather than showing the gift as a tax deductible event, the entire gift is excluded from taxable income; however, such gifts do count toward any Required Minimum Distributions.
Some highlights of the IRA Rollover provision are:
• Only donors age 70 ½ or older can take advantage of the provision.
• The maximum amount that can be rolled over tax-free each year is $100,000.
• The provision only allows for direct gifts to charitable organizations and churches.
• To qualify, the distribution must be made directly from the Trustee of an IRA to the charitable recipient. Donors should not take the distribution themselves and subsequently write a check to charity.
A letter from Golub Group, LLC
September 18, 2008
Dear Celeste:
Worthy of note…
Monday’s 504 point decline in the Dow was the 17th biggest one-day percentage decline since World War II. If we look at the 16 prior declines and examine what happened afterwards, we see the following:
The Dow was on average 10.4% higher six months later, 13.8% higher one year later, 27% higher two years later, and 45.6% higher 5 years later. As long as the drop was large, it didn’t seem to matter how large, the market was likely to bounce back strongly in the near future. History says one would be foolish to succumb to panic. Another way to say this might be: it’s good to buy, not sell, when there is blood in the streets.
Regards,
Mike Golub
Golub Group, LLC
www.golubgroup.com
2929 Campus Dr, Ste 145
San Mateo, CA 94403
(650) 212-2240 Phone
(650) 212-2249 Fax
August 2008
We have completed the process of transferring all funds out of Bear Stearns/JP Morgan. We are very pleased with the selection of Investment Managers for your portfolio(s).
If you have any questions or are ready to invest more funds under the Foundation’s administrative management do not hesitate to call Celeste at 916-374-1581 or email CelesteC@cnvumf.org.
Your pastor and the Finance/Endowment chair have received a copy in the mail. For additional copies call 888-789-7374 or email umf@canvumf.org.
June 2008
New Booklet!
Donor Insight: A guide for
Christian Stewards is a must read for members of every church,
stewardship and planned giving committee. It is scripturally based and
in keeping with John Wesley's "Earn all you can, save all you can, give
all you can." The booklet will guide you through the many options
available to help individual make gifts to the church and its agencies.
It covers items such as:
Your pastor and the Finance/Endowment chair have received a copy in the mail. For additional copies call 888-789-7374 or email umf@canvumf.org.
The Foundation is very much aware of the status and difficulties facing the Bear Stearns parent company. We are constantly assessing the situation. Rest assured that your funds are safe and secure in the Bear Stearns Securities Corporation, a subdivision of the Bear Stearns Companies Inc. BSSC is the custodian of your funds. They are separate from the control of the parent company, and the funds are in the Foundation's name, and not BSSC's name. They are also protected by the Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC) as well as the Customer Asset Protection Company (CAPCO), a licensed insurance company. Clients of the Foundation have received notice of changes made to date. Prospective clients are invited to contact Celeste Maia Cron for additional information.