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| For Professional Advisors |
Do you ask the giving
question?
Whether you are a financial advisor, an attorney, an accountant, or
a stock or insurance broker, you have an opportunity to play a key
role in helping your clients give back to their community while managing
their assets or planning their estates. One of the greatest opportunities
to assist your clients in maximizing the personal benefits of giving
occurs when they are making other major business, personal, and financial
decisions, such as: (1) estate planning; (2) writing a will; (3) sale
of a business or other major asset; (4) retirement planning; and (5)
at times of a financial windfall.
In many of these situations, an opportunity exists to help your clients
through planned giving. One of the most important things you can do
to help your clients enjoy the benefits of planned giving is to ask
them the giving question - "Are there charitable or community needs
you would like to consider in your planning?"
According to data collected by the National Center for Family Philanthropy,
donor/clients are most satisfied with their advisors when the advisor:
- Discusses philanthropy with them in detail, asks questions,
and listens
- Makes philanthropy a discussion about living goals, rather than
about estate planning and mortality
- Keeps the giving plan simple and/or limits discussions of complex
giving vehicles to the top few options
- Treats the plan as a vehicle for giving rather than as a financial
product he/she is selling
- Is a giver him/herself
- Knows when to look for additional assistance rather than trying
to be an expert on all aspects of giving and family dynamics
The following excerpt is from the 1996 article, "Advisor's Enthusiasm
Helps to Shape Client's Charitable Role" by Joe Breiteneicher:
"We know that experienced advisors tailor their approaches to the
backgrounds and needs of each client. If getting started on developing
a client's philanthropic profile is a cause for discomfort for some
advisors, we offer the following queries, which have proven to be
effective and which advisors can adapt for their own use. Charitable
Giving Questions Estate Planners Should Ask Their Clients:
- What are their values? What have been the principles that have
guided how they have lived their lives, raised families, run their
businesses?
- What charitable interests have they pursued as an outgrowth
of their values?
- What have they learned from their giving? What would they do
differently?
- What has been the most satisfying charitable gift that they
have made? Why?
- How do they view their wealth in connection to their community,
to society?
- What role has philanthropy played in their family? What role
would they like it to play? What value would it bring to their
children and grandchildren?
- What core values would they like to express through their giving?
What do they want to stand for?
- When they think about challenges facing their community, what
are their major concerns?
- Are any of these or should any of these be the focus of their
giving?
- What would they like to accomplish with their giving? What do
they think is possible?
Answers to such questions help clients and advisors begin to:
- Ascertain the priority treatment the client gives to philanthropy;
- Determine the relative importance the client places on the tax
consequences of giving;
- Bring into sharper relief the role giving plays and could play
for the client;
- Provide advisors with an assessment of what the client would
like to accomplish and insight into what has been achieved;
- Help sort out the structure and focus of an enhanced giving
effort by the client;
- Assess the value of philanthropy to the family and, especially,
to intergenerational dynamics;
- Finally, assist advisors to develop and deliver information
and resources that will support clients' philanthropic enthusiasms
and priorities."
Resources for Professional Advisors:
You are likely already aware of the philanthropy resources available
to you from your professional associations. In addition, there is
a tremendous online resource available to you at no charge called
the Planned Giving Design Center. Its mission is
"to act as an information conduit between charitable organizations
and professional advisors, whereby objective, authoritative information
on the subject of charitable gift planning is provided on a current
basis. The website for the Planned Giving Design Center is www.pgdc.org.
Another resource designed for advisors is The Philanthropic
Advisors Network created by the Council on Foundations
to promote opportunities for legal and financial advisors to discuss
charitable issues, assist their clients and learn from each other.
For more information on The Philanthropic Advisors Network go to
the Council on Foundation's website at www.cof.org
or call 202/466-6512. The Philanthropic Advisors Network is subscription
based.
The Northwest Giving Project is an organization
whose aim is to inspire and educate individual donors and their
advisors about giving. Their data-intensive website - www.nwgiving.org
- has in-depth information about many philanthropic options and
forms of giving. They do not recommend any one giving vehicle, plan,
non-profit organization, cause or advisor. Similarly, New Ventures
in Philanthropy, a special project of the forum of Regional
Associations of Grantmakers, can provide you and your clients
with the resources you need to understand the full range of options
available for establishing philanthropic grant making funds. They
can be found on the web at www.rag.org.
The Homer Foundation: Closer to
home, the Homer Foundation can provide you with information on charitable
opportunities in the greater Homer area, and share how easy it is
for your clients to give to or through the Homer Foundation today
or in the future.
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