Your Donor’s Financial Advisor:
Friend or Foe?
A number of types of financial advisors can assist your planned giving prospects/donors with their estate plans, including attorneys, CPAs, trust officers, financial planners, insurance professionals, and stockbrokers. Since we don’t know who will help a given donor, we need to reach out to as many as we can, especially to assure bequests that work.
Don’t have a ready list of such good individuals to contact? Ask your fundraising colleagues, board members, and other financial advisors for the names of those who are doing estate planning in your area. Also, check phone book listings for advisors and planned giving and estate planning council membership listings.
Be aware that no advisor can “push” clients to support a specific nonprofit organization. That would be a conflict of interest. If they’re asked for recommendations, that’s a different story.
Basic Fact Sheet
If you’ve never sent information about your organization to a financial advisor, a good place to start is with a Basic Fact Sheet. It’s a quick overview of your mission and what gift support you are hoping to receive.
Often advisors compile information on charitable organizations their clients may want to support. Keep it minimal (and inexpensive) -- use your organization letterhead with information printed on the front and back.
Send the fact sheet with your business card and an introductory personal note saying you’d like to meet with the advisor at some point and that this information could be useful to clients in the meantime.
Include this information on the Basic Fact Sheet, if applicable –
- your organization’s legal name, mission statement and sample bequest language.
- whether your organization works with endowed funds, the purposes and minimum gift amounts.
- gift support priorities and short explanations of each.
- your organization’s planned giving donor recognition society and its eligibility requirements.
- what life income gifts your organization does/does not handle and any special restrictions (minimum gift amount and age; payout maximums).
- contact information including names, phone numbers, and e-mail addresses.
- other general information that potential supporters should know to help them decide about support needs.
You can send a few of these at a time or a lot, depending on time and resources.
For an example of a two-sided basic fact sheet, see Exhibit A.
Periodic informational updates(quarterly or semi-annually) can be sent to all of the advisors to whom you have mailed or given the Basic Fact Sheet.
This update can be provided through an in-house newsletter format to keep financial advisors in the loop. Include a photo of an activity or memorable location; it can set the stage for this program information --
- gift support priorities and short explanations of each (periodic updates/reminders are very useful).
- each year’s fundraising results, including total assets, endowment total, investment return, amounts received from planned gifts, etc.
- support services available for life income gifts, such as gift illustrations and sample contracts.
- acknowledge every advisor who has provided technical support, assisted with a new gift from a client, estate administration, seminar presenter, etc.
- information about how many life income gifts your organization has received.
- current # of members in yourplanned giving donor recognition society.
- any other stewardship efforts available for planned gifts – plaques, bricks, etc.
- request form to receive your organization’s regular newsletter.
- what assets your organization is not interested in accepting or require extra consideration (such as time shares?).
- case studies (real or hypothetical) to illustrate how life income gifts solve problems for clients.
- a list of free brochures you can provide for advisors/donors use, including the organization’s annual report.
- reasons why financial advisors should encourage their clients to join the donor recognition society.
- timely explanation of the benefits of new charitable laws.
For two examples, see ExhibitsB and C.
Personal visits to financial advisors are worthwhile as a way todiscuss your organization’s mission and goals while providing program information.
Visits are also useful because you can evaluate whether the individual may be someone you could recommend to donors who request names of financial advisors (do that only via a list of at least three advisors).
Be mindful of the advisor’s time and plan on staying 20-30 minutes at the most. Better yet, meet for lunch.
Ask about their areas of specialization and whether you can add them to your periodic updates mailing list, if not already receiving them.
Give each advisor a folder containing –
your business card
the Basic Fact Sheet
the most recent annual report
a brochure on your legacy society and membership materials for clients
Supplemental Efforts – continuing education seminars (take a significant amount of time, but can help to elevate the visibility and credibility of the organization’s planned giving efforts), planned giving advisory committees (take a good bit of time to arrange the meetings and programs), invitations to events, , special certificates of service. Something else??
J. Victor Conrad, CFP®, ChFC, AIF®, CPA (inactive)
724-940-4333
Pinnacle Financial Strategies, 6600 Brooktree Ct., Ste. 2600, Wexford, PA 15090
Deborah Miller, JD, Director of Planned Giving
304-284-4033
WVU Foundation, Inc., P. O. Box 1650, Morgantown, WV 26507