SHB 1119 -
By Senators Kohl-Welles, Kline
ADOPTED 04/22/2009
Strike everything after the enacting clause and insert the following:
"NEW SECTION. Sec. 1
NEW SECTION. Sec. 2
(1) "Charitable purpose" means the relief of poverty, the
advancement of education or religion, the promotion of health, the
promotion of a governmental purpose, or any other purpose the
achievement of which is beneficial to the community.
(2) "Endowment fund" means an institutional fund or part thereof
that, under the terms of a gift instrument, is not wholly expendable by
the institution on a current basis. "Endowment fund" does not include
assets that an institution designates as an endowment fund for its own
use.
(3) "Gift instrument" means a record or records, including an
institutional solicitation, under which property is granted to,
transferred to, or held by an institution as an institutional fund.
(4) "Institution" means:
(a) A person, other than an individual, organized and operated
exclusively for charitable purposes;
(b) A government or governmental subdivision, agency, or
instrumentality, to the extent that it holds funds exclusively for a
charitable purpose; or
(c) A trust that had both charitable and noncharitable interests,
after all noncharitable interests have terminated.
(5) "Institutional fund" means a fund held by an institution
exclusively for charitable purposes. "Institutional fund" does not
include:
(a) Program-related assets;
(b) A fund held for an institution by a trustee that is not an
institution; or
(c) A fund in which a beneficiary that is not an institution has an
interest, other than an interest that could arise upon violation or
failure of the purposes of the fund.
(6) "Person" means an individual, corporation, business trust,
estate, trust, partnership, limited liability company, association,
joint venture, public corporation, government or governmental
subdivision, agency, or instrumentality, or any other legal or
commercial entity.
(7) "Program-related asset" means an asset held by an institution
primarily to accomplish a charitable purpose of the institution and not
primarily for investment.
(8) "Record" means information that is inscribed on a tangible
medium or that is stored in an electronic or other medium and is
retrievable in perceivable form.
NEW SECTION. Sec. 3
(2) In addition to complying with the duty of loyalty imposed by
law other than this chapter, each person responsible for managing and
investing an institutional fund shall manage and invest the fund in
good faith and with the care an ordinarily prudent person in a like
position would exercise under similar circumstances.
(3) In managing and investing an institutional fund, an
institution:
(a) May incur only costs that are appropriate and reasonable in
relation to the assets, the purposes of the institution, and the skills
available to the institution; and
(b) Shall make a reasonable effort to verify facts relevant to the
management and investment of the fund.
(4) An institution may pool two or more institutional funds for
purposes of management and investment.
(5) Except as otherwise provided by a gift instrument, the
following rules apply:
(a) In managing and investing an institutional fund, the following
factors, if relevant, must be considered:
(i) General economic conditions;
(ii) The possible effect of inflation or deflation;
(iii) The expected tax consequences, if any, of investment
decisions or strategies;
(iv) The role that each investment or course of action plays within
the overall investment portfolio of the fund;
(v) The expected total return from income and the appreciation of
investments;
(vi) Other resources of the institution;
(vii) The needs of the institution and the institutional fund to
make distributions and to preserve capital; and
(viii) An asset's special relationship or special value, if any, to
the charitable purposes of the institution.
(b) Management and investment decisions about an individual asset
must be made not in isolation but rather in the context of the
institutional fund's portfolio of investments as a whole and as a part
of an overall investment strategy having risk and return objectives
reasonably suited to the institutional fund and to the institution.
(c) Except as otherwise provided by law, an institution may invest
in any kind of property or type of investment consistent with this
section.
(d) An institution shall diversify the investments of an
institutional fund unless the institution reasonably determines that,
because of special circumstances, the purposes of the fund are better
served without diversification.
(e) Within a reasonable time after receiving property, an
institution shall make and carry out decisions concerning the retention
or disposition of the property or to rebalance a portfolio, in order to
bring the institutional fund into compliance with the purposes, terms,
and distribution requirements of the institution as necessary to meet
other circumstances of the institution and the requirements of this
chapter.
(f) A person that has special skills or expertise, or is selected
in reliance upon the person's representation that the person has
special skills or expertise, has a duty to use those skills or that
expertise in managing and investing institutional funds.
NEW SECTION. Sec. 4
(a) The duration and preservation of the endowment fund;
(b) The purposes of the institution and the endowment fund;
(c) General economic conditions;
(d) The possible effect of inflation or deflation;
(e) The expected total return from income and the appreciation of
investments;
(f) Other resources of the institution; and
(g) The investment policy of the institution.
(2) To limit the authority to appropriate for expenditure or
accumulate under subsection (1) of this section, a gift instrument must
specifically state the limitation.
(3) Terms in a gift instrument designating a gift as an endowment,
or a direction or authorization in the gift instrument to use only
"income," "interest," "dividends," or "rents, issues, or profits," or
"to preserve the principal intact," or words of similar import:
(a) Create an endowment fund of permanent duration unless other
language in the gift instrument limits the duration or purpose of the
fund; and
(b) Do not otherwise limit the authority to appropriate for
expenditure or accumulate under subsection (1) of this section.
NEW SECTION. Sec. 5
(a) Selecting an agent;
(b) Establishing the scope and terms of the delegation, consistent
with the purposes of the institution and the institutional fund; and
(c) Periodically reviewing the agent's actions in order to monitor
the agent's performance and compliance with the scope and terms of the
delegation.
(2) In performing a delegated function, an agent owes a duty to the
institution to exercise reasonable care to comply with the scope and
terms of the delegation.
(3) An institution that complies with subsection (1) of this
section is not liable for the decisions or actions of an agent to which
the function was delegated.
(4) By accepting delegation of a management or investment function
from an institution that is subject to the laws of this state, an agent
submits to the jurisdiction of the courts of this state in all
proceedings arising from or related to the delegation or the
performance of the delegated function.
(5) An institution may delegate management and investment functions
to its committees, officers, or employees as authorized by law.
NEW SECTION. Sec. 6
(2) The court, upon application of an institution, may modify a
restriction contained in a gift instrument regarding the management or
investment of an institutional fund if the restriction has become
impracticable or wasteful, if it impairs the management or investment
of the fund, or if, because of circumstances not anticipated by the
donor, a modification of a restriction will further the purposes of the
fund. The institution shall notify the attorney general of the
application, and the attorney general must be given an opportunity to
be heard. To the extent practicable, any modification must be made in
accordance with the donor's probable intention.
(3) If a particular charitable purpose or a restriction contained
in a gift instrument on the use of an institutional fund becomes
unlawful, impracticable, impossible to achieve, or wasteful, the court,
upon application of an institution, may modify the purpose of the fund
or the restriction on the use of the fund in a manner consistent with
the charitable purposes expressed in the gift instrument. The
institution shall notify the attorney general of the application, and
the attorney general must be given an opportunity to be heard.
(4) If an institution determines that a restriction contained in a
gift instrument on the management, investment, or purpose of an
institutional fund is unlawful, impracticable, impossible to achieve,
or wasteful, the institution, sixty days after notification to the
attorney general, may release or modify the restriction, in whole or
part, if:
(a) The institutional fund subject to the restriction has a total
value of less than seventy-five thousand dollars. On the first day of
July of each year, beginning on July 1, 2011, the dollar limit provided
in this subsection (4)(a) shall increase by an amount of two thousand
five hundred dollars;
(b) More than twenty years have elapsed since the fund was
established; and
(c) The institution uses the property in a manner consistent with
the charitable purposes expressed in the gift instrument.
NEW SECTION. Sec. 7
NEW SECTION. Sec. 8
(2) On and after July 1, 2009, this chapter applies to all
institutional funds.
(3) As applied to institutional funds existing on the effective
date of this act, this chapter governs only decisions made or actions
taken on or after July 1, 2009, except that in the case of an
institution that makes the election under subsection (1) of this
section this chapter governs decisions made or actions taken on or
after the date the institution elects to be covered by this chapter.
NEW SECTION. Sec. 9
NEW SECTION. Sec. 10
NEW SECTION. Sec. 11 CAPTIONS NOT LAW. Captions used in this
act are not any part of the law.
NEW SECTION. Sec. 12 Sections 1 through 11 of this act
constitute a new chapter in Title
NEW SECTION. Sec. 13 The following acts or parts of acts are
each repealed, effective July 1, 2009:
(1) RCW 24.44.010 (Definitions) and 1973 c 17 s 1;
(2) RCW 24.44.020 (Appropriation of appreciation) and 1973 c 17 s
2;
(3) RCW 24.44.030 (Investment authority) and 1973 c 17 s 3;
(4) RCW 24.44.040 (Delegation of investment management) and 1973 c
17 s 4;
(5) RCW 24.44.050 (Standard of conduct) and 1973 c 17 s 5;
(6) RCW 24.44.060 (Release of restrictions on use or investments)
and 1973 c 17 s 6;
(7) RCW 24.44.070 (Uniformity of application and construction) and
1973 c 17 s 8;
(8) RCW 24.44.080 (Short title) and 1973 c 17 s 9;
(9) RCW 24.44.090 (Section headings) and 1973 c 17 s 10; and
(10) RCW 24.44.900 (Severability -- 1973 c 17) and 1973 c 17 s 7.
NEW SECTION. Sec. 14 This act is necessary for the immediate
preservation of the public peace, health, or safety, or support of the
state government and its existing public institutions, and takes effect
immediately."
SHB 1119 -
By Senators Kohl-Welles, Kline
ADOPTED 04/22/2009
On page 1, line 2 of the title, after "institutions;" strike the remainder of the title and insert "adding a new chapter to Title 24 RCW; repealing RCW 24.44.010, 24.44.020, 24.44.030, 24.44.040, 24.44.050, 24.44.060, 24.44.070, 24.44.080, 24.44.090, and 24.44.900; providing an effective date; and declaring an emergency."