Financial software
FiduciCalc
Software for the calculations behind charitable gift arrangements.
Some charitable gifts do more than transfer money today. A donor may arrange to receive payments during their lifetime, with a charity benefiting through the same gift. Someone has to work out the value of those interests and the charitable deduction associated with the arrangement.
FiduciCalc is a calculation engine for planned giving professionals working with those questions. It covers arrangements such as charitable gift annuities and charitable trusts, as well as other gifts with income or retained-property interests.
A gift with more than one purpose
Consider a charitable remainder trust. It can provide payments to its beneficiaries for a defined period, with the remaining assets going to charity afterward. The income interest and the charitable interest need to be valued under the assumptions that apply to that arrangement.
The calculation isn't just the gift amount multiplied by a percentage. A professional needs to describe the actual arrangement: whose lives or what term it depends on, when payments occur, and which rates and actuarial tables apply.
What makes the calculation difficult
Details that look minor on a form can change the answer. Payments at the beginning of a period differ from payments at the end. A term of years differs from a lifetime. An annuity that pays a fixed amount differs from a unitrust whose payments depend on asset values.
The engineering work is to make those distinctions explicit, keep input meanings consistent, and trace numerical differences to their cause. A result needs to be understandable, not just formatted as a dollar amount.
The calculation layer
The engine is written in Rust, with API interfaces so calculations can be used by an application rather than only through a single screen. It brings domain-specific mathematics together with ordinary software responsibilities: clear inputs, useful errors, and results presented with their assumptions.
This page introduces the software. A particular gift arrangement still needs the professional judgment appropriate to it.