CHARITABLE PLANNING

fund-sponsoring organizations may vary, so it’ s prudent to consult with them in advance to ensure that your clients can contribute the most appropriate assets.

3. Simplified Administration

Donor-advised funds make it easy to support multiple nonprofits through a single account, where you and your clients can see all contributions, grant requests and donations in one place.

The funds also help clients reduce paperwork. The vehicle sponsor handles all administrative tasks, including record-keeping, due diligence on charities, and processing grants, which simplifies the disbursement of capital and tax season for donors and their advisors.

4. Legacy Planning Support

Donor-advised funds can help clients make donations over generations. Donors may name their children or other heirs as successor advisors, creating opportunities to pass along philanthropic values and sustain charitable involvement over time.

The funds also help with estate tax reduction. By naming the donor-advised fund as the beneficiary in an estate plan, donors can reduce their taxable estate, and the funds can receive bequests from wills, retirement accounts or trusts.

5. Strong Relationships Between Advisors And Clients

By incorporating charitable planning through a donor-advised fund, advisors can have more meaningful conversations with clients about their values and priorities— beyond just the clients’ investment holdings and performance. That can ultimately lead to deeper engagement and new business referrals.

Better relationships mean more opportunity for advisors. Consider the following Fidelity Charitable research findings: In 2021, advisory practices that offered charitable planning— compared with

those that did not— had six times the median assets, three times the median organic growth, and 1.3 times the median new money per investor. In 2024, nearly 50 % of advisors said discussing charitable planning with their clients helped them nurture those relationships, and 60 % said such conversations helped them attract new clients.

By incorporating donor-advised funds and charitable planning into your yearround service offerings, you enable clients to give more impactfully while strengthening— and potentially expanding— your role as their trusted advisor.

Now is the ideal time to help clients harness the many benefits a donor-advised fund can provide, including tax efficiency, savvy investing, family bonding and legacy building.

GILLIAN HOWELL is National Philanthropy Executive at Foundation Source, the leader in philanthropic software and services for donors, nonprofits, advisors and financial institutions.

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20 | FINANCIAL ADVISOR MAGAZINE | JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2026 WWW. FA-MAG. COM