To issue charitable gift annuities in our state, your organization must obtain a certificate of exemption from our office. The Washington Department of Financial Institutions classifies annuities as financial securities and issuing them without the proper exemption violates both state and federal securities laws.
Before you apply
If you're applying for a certificate of exemption to issue charitable gift annuities, it's your responsibility to understand Chapter 48.38 RCW, Chapter 284-38 WAC and any other applicable statutes. Carefully review what's required of you if you're an exemption certificate holder.
How to apply for your certificate of exemption
Follow these instructions to apply for a certificate of exemption to issue charitable gift annuities in Washington.
- Download and complete the charitable gift annuity application (PDF 1.51MB) and gather all the requested documents.
- Print your completed application and have it signed by an authorized officer and notarized.
- Combine the application, supplemental documents and any cover letter into a single PDF document. All information in your application is considered a public record. Marking material as "private" or "confidential" does not change its status or availability as a public record.
- Attach your PDF and submit your application via email.
We acknowledge applications upon receipt.
After you apply
Applications are assigned to our analysts in the order they're received. Once assigned, an analyst will reach out to the contact listed in question 11 in your application. If there's someone else who should be contacted, be sure to include their contact information in your application.
If your organization doesn't meet the financial requirements to register, per RCW 48.38.010(6), we'll stop our review and the application will be closed.
If you meet all requirements and any errors in your application are resolved, we'll issue your certificate of exemption by email.
Certificate holder responsibilities
Issuing charitable gift annuities places legal, financial and reporting requirements on your organization. These requirements can be burdensome and costly. Your organization is required to maintain its registration until it has no in-force contractual obligations.
Form filings
We must to approve any policy or contract forms before you can use them. File your forms electronically using SERFF.
Contact our Rates and Forms Help Desk at 360-725-7111 or email rfhelpdesk@oic.wa.gov if you have form filing-related questions.
Annual reporting and filing fee
Certificate holders must file an annual report within 60 days of their fiscal year end. The annual report must include a Statement of Actuarial Opinion prepared by a qualified actuary, relating to the annuity reserves and other actuarial items covered by the report. The statement of Actuarial Opinion is required even if the certificate holder has no outstanding annuities issued to Washington residents.
Annual submissions of audited financial statements and IRS Form 990 filings are also required.
Certificate holders pay a $25 annual filing fee, plus $5 for each charitable gift annuity contract issued to residents of Washington during their fiscal year ending on or before Dec. 31 of the previous calendar year. Payments are due by March 1 each year.
Reporting material changes
It’s important that you keep your contact information up to date. We assign access to the financial filing portal to the financial statement contact on file. If this person changes their phone number, email or leaves your organization, you must notify us so you can maintain access to the portal. You can report contact changes via email.
Only the legal entity named on a certificate of exemption can issue charitable gift annuities. If your organization goes through a merger or acquisition, changes its name, or wants to transfer its annuities to another entity, you must update your certificate first. Failure to update your certificate may result in enforcement or administrative action. Contact us before you make these changes for a list of required documents.
How to surrender your certificate of exemption
Before surrendering your certificate of exemption, you must be fully compliant with Chapter 48.38 RCW and Chapter 284-30 WAC and have no in-force Washington charitable gift annuities.
First, you must fulfill your payment obligations
If you still have in-force Washington charitable gift annuities, you must fulfill your payment obligations to all Washington annuitants before requesting to surrender your certificate of exemption.
You can use one of these two methods:
Transfer payment responsibility to another authorized certificate of exemption holder
To fulfill your payment obligation, you can choose to transfer payment responsibility to another authorized certificate of exemption holder.
To prove you’ve fulfilled your payment obligation by this method, you must send us a written agreement between you and the authorized certificate of exemption holder stating that they have fully assumed all in-force charitable gift annuities for all Washington annuitants.
Place charitable gift annuities under a single-premium life annuity
You can choose to place all applicable charitable gift annuities under a single-premium life annuity that pays the entire amount in the gift annuity agreements.
Single-premium life annuities must be issued by an insurer that is:
- Authorized in Washington under Chapter 48.05 RCW
- Licensed in the state where your principal office is located
- Licensed in the state in which the single-premium life annuity is issued
If you choose this method to fulfill your payment obligations, you must submit a copy of the single-premium life annuity, which includes:
- A list of the covered charitable gift annuities
- A copy of your written agreement with the annuitant and the insurer. The written agreement must comply with all requirements in RCW 48.38.020(5)(a)(ii).
Surrender process
Submit a written request to surrender your certificate of exemption to clc@oic.wa.gov and attach the following:
- Your certificate of exemption. If you can’t locate it, have an authorized officer provide a notarized statement attesting the certificate couldn’t be found after a diligent search.
- A statement from an authorized officer that you either have no in-force Washington charitable gift annuities or documentation proving you’ve fulfilled your payment obligations to all in-force charitable gift annuities for Washington annuitants.
- Contact information for the person who will file your final annual report.
Before sending your request to surrender, be sure that you haven’t issued any new Washington charitable gift annuities since your last annual report. Once you submit your request, you are not allowed to issue new Washington charitable gift annuities unless you apply for and receive a new certificate of exemption.
We’ll review your request to surrender for completeness. If it’s incomplete, we’ll send you a notice of deficiencies. You’ll have 15 business days to provide a complete response.
Once we complete our review, we’ll send you written confirmation that your certificate is surrendered.
File your final annual report
You must file a final annual report and pay any required filing fees for the year of the surrender. The law requires the report and we cannot waive the requirement.
This report is due within two months after your fiscal year-end. Filing instructions are on our website.