When the math makes sense

Professional advisors live in a very competitive world.  Being a part of any association such as AALU or GAMA, there are both allies and competitors in one room.  And most advisors understand that products aren’t generally what differentiate you from your competitor. It is either your service or your knowledge.  Charitable strategy is one key aspect of a safe and legaldifferentiation that you can bring to your clients.

And it is available to both those who consider themselves charitable, and those who don’t. Comments abound such as, “I don’t know if there is a graceful way to say this, but … I am not a charitable man.”  But they often continue, “if the math doesn’t make sense, don’t show it to me." That is the foot in the door.  Because with strategies such as qualified split interests, the math makes sense.

Traditionally the advisor thinks charitable strategies only apply to charitable clients.  They don’t realize that it also applies to their retirement income driven clients and their clients who don’t want to pay a big capital gain tax or their clients that want to maximize an inheritance to their children. They don’t know that in all of those things there are charitable strategies that create an opportunity for them.  Since they’re unfamiliar with the charitable strategies they don’t lead with them.

On average most professionals do not think of charitable strategies unless a client states a desire to do something charitable.  The client that says, “I want to do something charitable” is in a different place.  But the client that doesn’t know that, the client who says “I don’t want to pay this big tax” may actually be saying “I’d be willing to make a contribution to society later, differently, less overtime, any of those if I didn’t just have to do it all right now in one lump sum”.  And that education offers the advisor a secondary form of marketing which is center of influence marketing through the rest of the professional community.