HOW THE HARVARD CRT TECHNIQUE WORKSHOW THE HARVARD CRT TECHNIQUE WORKS

Dear Editor:

The March issue's, “Charitable Giving,” column in the Briefing section described private letter rulings issued to Harvard University in 2003 and to other universities starting in 2006. The technique outlined in the rulings and described in the article allows a charitable remainder trust (CRT), of which Harvard is trustee and sole remainder beneficiary, to commingle its assets with those of the Harvard endowment by purchasing units of the endowment. The units are nothing more than contractual rights to receive a return as determined by the university.

The March article incorrectly described how the distributions from the CRT would be made. In fact, in the case of an 8 percent CRT having a fair market value (FMV) of $100,000, th...