ALEXANDRIA, Va.-Cedar Point Federal Credit Union (Lexington Park, Md.) CEO Barbara Horn wrote NCUA asking if an irrevocable charitable remainder unitrust is eligible for membership if the settlor and the current beneficiary are credit union members and the trustees are eligible. According to NCUA Associate General Counsel Sheila Albin, the trust is not eligible for credit union membership because the beneficiary for the remainder of the interest is unknown in this instance, but the credit union can set up an insured account for the trust. A charitable remainder unitrust is an irrevocable trust that allows someone to make a charitable donation effective for the future, with another person designated in the interim-the current beneficiary, to receive a percentage of the income from the donated assets. The current beneficiary can receive the income for a set number of years or for life. At the end of either term, the remaining trust assets go to a designated charity, known as the remainder beneficiary. Previously, in Legal Opinion Letter 99-1110, NCUA has interpreted the "organizations of such persons" sometimes included in the primary description of a field of membership to be the basis for a trust to be a member if all parties to the trust are within the FOM, Albin explained in the new opinion letter (03-0817). However, because the remainder beneficiary is unknown in this case, it does not qualify. Still, she added, a federally insured credit union can establish an insured account for the trust under the agency's irrevocable trust account regulations. They are insurable if either all the settlers or all the beneficiaries are members of the credit union. Because the sole settlor is a member, this trust qualifies for insurance.