May 23, 2008

Endowments Will Remain a Hot Topic, Tax Expert Says

By PAUL FAIN

Endowment spending remains a hot topic, as evidenced by a standing-room-only crowd that gathered in Washington this month for a panel at an American Bar Association meeting.

Federal lawmakers have shown interest in legislation that would require universities to spend 5 percent of their endowments each year. But such a requirement would raise many complex technical questions, not the least of which is defining what, exactly, is an institution's endowment.

Rather than a single