September 2026 Professional Advisor News

If you’ve not yet considered that your client base likely includes people who serve on nonprofit boards, it may be wise to do so. Because their point of view is through a charitable lens, clients sometimes assume that nonprofit board service simply means attending meetings and events, offering advice, advocating for the organization’s mission, and making an annual gift.

In reality, nonprofit directors have significant legal responsibilities that deserve careful attention. Directors are expected to fulfill three fundamental fiduciary duties: duty of care, duty of loyalty, and duty of obedience, as follows:

• The duty of care requires board members to stay informed, review financial information, ask thoughtful questions, and actively participate in decision-making.
• The duty of loyalty requires directors to put the organization’s interests ahead of their own and appropriately manage conflicts of interest.
• The duty of obedience requires directors to help ensure that the organization remains faithful to its charitable mission while complying with applicable laws and governing documents.

What’s more, current commentary suggests that the IRS may be planning to revise Form 990 to require greater transparency around government grants, government contracts, and fiscal sponsorship arrangements, signaling increased expectations for nonprofit accountability and financial reporting. Because the board is ultimately responsible for overseeing the organization’s governance and compliance, board members should stay informed about these potential changes and ensure the nonprofit they’re serving has the systems and oversight needed to meet any new reporting requirements.

Of course, you don’t want to scare your clients or in any way discourage them from serving on the boards of the charitable organizations they love. However, the topic may warrant a few minutes of discussion during your meetings, especially because clients’ duties as board members apply whether the charitable organization they’re serving has a $100,000 budget or even a $100 million budget. Expressing interest in a client’s board service can help reinforce your role as a trusted advisor who understands that wealth often brings opportunities for community leadership.

For example, if a client mentions that they’ve recently joined a nonprofit board, consider asking a few simple questions to start the conversation and help your client become a better board member:

• Have you attended a board orientation?
• Do the organization’s financial statements make sense?
• Have you reviewed the organization’s conflict-of-interest policy?
• Would it be helpful for us to discuss a few of the responsibilities that come with serving as a director?

Finally, remember that our professional staff is happy to serve as a resource for your clients who are serving on boards, especially if a client has established a donor-advised or other type of fund at GiveWell Community Foundation. Because we work with nonprofits across our service area every day, our team has a unique perspective on effective governance, board engagement, and philanthropic best practices.

As always, the Community Foundation is honored to be your sounding board as you not only help clients become better board members, but also help them evaluate charitable planning opportunities, structure gifts, and align philanthropy with broader financial, tax, and estate planning goals. We look forward to our next conversation!

For many people, charitable giving is about much more than a financial transaction. It reflects deeply held values, relationships with organizations and communities, and a vision for the legacy they hope to leave behind. For professional advisors working with older clients, charitable planning is an important conversation to have early—while the client can clearly articulate those intentions and participate fully in designing the plan. Often, advisors are faced with issues related to clients’ cognitive decline and are looking for ways to address them proactively.

Here are four tips for navigating charitable planning with older clients:

Reach out to GiveWell Community Foundation to help start the conversation early.

Bringing the Community Foundation into the planning process early can give clients an opportunity to explore what they want their charitable legacy to accomplish and then put structures in place to carry those intentions forward. These are conversations we have regularly at the Community Foundation, working alongside donors and their advisors to help clarify charitable goals and determine the strategies that best align with those intentions.

A client might establish a donor-advised fund during their lifetime, document plans for a charitable bequest, or update IRA designations to name the Community Foundation as a beneficiary after death, all with the goal of providing for the organizations, causes, and community needs the client wants to support.

Watch carefully for signs at the intersection of generosity and protection.

This issue is particularly important because unusual financial activity involving an older adult can appropriately raise concerns about exploitation or undue influence—even when the proposed transaction is charitable.

Imagine, for example, that a longtime client who has historically given $5,000 annually suddenly asks to liquidate $250,000 of securities and transfer the proceeds to an unfamiliar organization. Perhaps the request is accompanied by a new caregiver, friend, or family member who appears to be influencing the conversation. The size or destination of the gift alone does not mean anything is wrong. But an advisor may have legitimate questions: Is this consistent with the client’s wishes? Does the client understand the transaction? Is someone exerting undue influence?

By that point, resolving those questions can be difficult. Advisors want to respect a client’s autonomy and generosity while also fulfilling their professional responsibilities and protecting a potentially vulnerable client. Planning ahead can make these situations much easier to navigate.

Know the regulatory landscape focused on protecting older clients.

Depending on your professional role, federal law and FINRA rules may provide important protections and procedures for working with older clients. Even if these particular protections and procedures aren’t relevant to your professional role, it’s smart to be generally aware of the regulatory landscape. If they are relevant to your work, you’re likely familiar already with these provisions; just remember that they may also come into play with charitable transactions. 

Here are the basics: 

• The Senior Safe Act encourages certain financial professionals and institutions to identify and report suspected financial exploitation of people age 65 and older. It does not mandate reporting, but under specified conditions—including training requirements—it provides immunity from civil or administrative liability to eligible employees and covered financial institutions when suspected exploitation is reported to an appropriate agency in good faith and with reasonable care. Among the covered financial institutions are investment advisers and broker-dealers. 
• For financial advisors subject to FINRA rules, FINRA Rule 4512 provides another layer of protection that can be especially useful when working with older clients. Firms must make reasonable efforts to obtain the name and contact information of a trusted contact person for non-institutional customer accounts. That person can serve as a resource when concerns arise about possible diminished capacity, financial exploitation, or other circumstances affecting the client. Importantly, being named as a trusted contact does not give that person authority to make trades or other decisions for the client’s account. 
• FINRA Rule 2165 goes a step further by permitting a member firm, when the rule’s requirements are met, to place a temporary hold on certain transactions or disbursements when the firm reasonably believes financial exploitation of a “specified adult” has occurred, is occurring, has been attempted, or will be attempted. 

These protections are important. But ideally, a client’s charitable legacy does not first become a topic of serious discussion when an advisor is already worried about capacity or exploitation.

Prevention is way better than intervention.

Early charitable planning can help document the client’s intentions before questions arise. The Community Foundation can help the client articulate charitable priorities, consider appropriate giving vehicles, document a long-term philanthropic plan, and coordinate that plan with the client’s attorney, CPA, and financial advisor.

This does not mean a client’s charitable intentions can never change. It is common for donors to reconsider their philanthropy as their lives, families, finances, and communities change. Nor does an established giving plan eliminate an advisor’s responsibility to respond appropriately to genuine warning signs.

Instead, early planning provides context. If a client has spent years talking about a particular cause, has established a charitable plan, has documented plan with advisors, and has maintained a relationship with the Community Foundation, those facts can help distinguish an established charitable intention from an unexpected transaction that may deserve additional scrutiny.

Unfortunately, by the time diminished capacity, family disagreement, or suspected undue influence enters the picture, even a well-intentioned charitable gift can become much harder to navigate. Advisors may face competing responsibilities, family members may disagree about what the client intended, and financial institutions may appropriately invoke safeguards designed to protect the client.

The takeaway here for attorneys, CPAs, and financial advisors is to remember that introducing the Community Foundation while clients are actively engaged in their planning can help ensure that charitable intentions are discussed, documented, and thoughtfully structured. The goal is not simply to protect assets from exploitation. It is also to protect the client’s ability to be philanthropic on their own terms—and to give their advisors, the Community Foundation, and the client’s family members a clear roadmap for honoring those charitable wishes in the years ahead.

As attorneys, CPAs, and financial advisors, you know that estate planning is about much more than preparing documents. It is an opportunity to help clients think intentionally about what they want their assets to accomplish for the people and causes they care about. With National Estate Planning Awareness Week coming up soon from October 19 through 25, this is a great time to revisit those conversations—and make sure charitable giving is part of them.

To help incorporate philanthropy into your estate planning discussions, here are three scenarios where GiveWell Community Foundation can assist your efforts:

Revisit charitable provisions in an existing estate plan.
If: Your client already has a will or trust that includes charitable bequests, but the documents have not been reviewed in several years …

Then: Encourage your client to take another look at whether those provisions still reflect the client’s charitable intentions.

Why? Organizations change, community needs evolve, and your client’s interests may shift over time. In some cases, naming a fund at the Community Foundation as the charitable beneficiary can provide useful flexibility. For example, a client might establish a field-of-interest fund to support a particular cause or a designated fund to benefit one or more favorite organizations. Depending on the structure, the Community Foundation can also help administer the client’s charitable intentions over time, even as circumstances change. This is a great reason to involve our professional staff while the client is reviewing the estate plan rather than waiting until the plan eventually takes effect.

For inspiration: The 2026 TPI Study of the Philanthropic Conversation found that 80% of high-net-worth clients believe advisors have a responsibility to engage them in conversations about charitable activity. Among clients who have discussed philanthropy with advisors, 93% consider the advisor’s role important. The study also offers an interesting clue about how to make those conversations more meaningful: Clients increasingly value discussions that balance technical considerations with personal goals, values, impact, and family legacy.

Take a close look at beneficiary designations.
If: Your client wants to leave assets to both family members and charitable organizations…

Then: Consider whether the assets themselves are allocated as thoughtfully as the percentages.

Why? Traditional IRAs and other tax-deferred retirement accounts can be particularly important to review because distributions to individual beneficiaries may carry income tax consequences, while qualified charitable organizations including the Community Foundation are generally tax-exempt. A client might therefore consider naming a donor-advised or other type of fund at the Community Foundation as beneficiary of some or all of a retirement account while leaving other assets to family members. Beneficiary designations on retirement accounts and other financial accounts can also be relatively easy to overlook when an estate plan is updated, so Estate Planning Awareness Week is a timely reminder to make sure these designations coordinate with the rest of the plan.

For inspiration: Tending to Your Estate Plan? Give Your IRA Some Love, Too, which appeared this past spring in Kiplinger, highlights why traditional IRA beneficiary designations deserve special attention in estate planning, including the different tax consequences for spouses, other individual heirs, and charities. Of particular interest in charitable planning, traditional IRAs can be attractive assets to leave to a charitable organization(s) because qualified charitable organizations, including the Community Foundation, generally can receive the account value without the income tax burden that may reduce what individual heirs ultimately receive. We are accustomed to working with clients to build their legacy plan using their IRA.

Think beyond a one-time charitable bequest.
If: Your client says, “I’d like to leave something to charitable causes,” but has not thought much beyond that …

Then: Ask a few more questions and loop in the Community Foundation’s planned giving staff. Remember we are not the end user; we are simply interested in facilitating your clients’ charitable goals.

Why? What causes have mattered most during the client’s lifetime? Does the client want to support specific organizations, address a particular community need, or involve children and grandchildren in philanthropy? Does the client envision the charitable gift being distributed immediately, or would a lasting charitable fund better reflect the legacy the client hopes to create? A simple charitable bequest may be exactly the right solution, but the conversation also may uncover opportunities that carry the client’s charitable intentions forward for years—or even generations. Our professional staff can help you and your client explore the possibilities while you continue to guide the legal, tax, and financial components of the estate plan as well as potential business exits.

For inspiration: “Five Core Truths About Donor-Advised Funds” is worth a read. Among other things, the article highlights the role donor-advised funds can play in family philanthropy and succession planning. That’s particularly relevant during estate planning conversations because a client’s charitable legacy may involve more than assets transferred at death; it may also involve preparing children or grandchildren to carry forward a family’s charitable values and priorities.

Remember, our goal is to be your go-to sounding board whenever charitable giving enters an estate planning conversation. Please reach out anytime. Even if our tools are not the right fit, we will point you in the right direction!

For many estate planning, tax, and financial advisors, the Qualified Charitable Distribution (QCD) is a familiar planning tool: A client age 70½ or older directs a distribution from an eligible IRA to a qualified charity, potentially satisfying all or part of a Required Minimum Distribution (RMD) while excluding the QCD amount from taxable income.

Even if you regularly advise and assist your clients with QCDs, you may not know that a QCD can also present an opportunity for a client to establish certain types of charitable funds at the Community Foundation that align with their legacy goals. Under current law, QCDs cannot be made to donor-advised funds, which can sometimes lead advisors and clients to conclude that a QCD cannot be used to establish any type of fund at a Community Foundation. Fortunately, that is not the case. In fact, with so many of our donors now in the QCD age bracket, helping them use their IRAs as part of their charitable legacy plans has become an increasingly common part of the work we do.

Here are three fund types at the Community Foundation that generally can receive QCDs if they are structured properly:

Designated fund
A designated fund can provide ongoing support for one (or a few) charitable organizations selected by the donor at the time the fund is established. For example, a client who has faithfully supported a favorite church, food bank, animal shelter, or other nonprofit for decades could use a QCD to establish a fund designed to continue that support over time.  Some clients may be interested in learning more about nonprofits in our community that provide support for causes they feel passionate about supporting. The Community Foundation is happy to offer informational resources and, most of all, we are always open to conversation. 

Field-of-interest fund
A field-of-interest fund can support a broader charitable priority rather than a particular organization. For example, a client might establish a fund focused on early childhood education, the environment, the arts, services for older adults, or another area that has been meaningful throughout the client’s life. The Community Foundation then uses the fund to provide charitable support in accordance with the intent of the donor.

Unrestricted fund
An unrestricted fund can offer clients perhaps the broadest community impact. Rather than identifying particular organizations or causes, the client entrusts the Community Foundation to use the fund to respond to changing community needs and opportunities over time.

And there are two more pieces of good news:

• Remember that eligibility for QCDs begins at age 70½, earlier than the typical starting age for RMDs, which for many people is 73. This creates a planning window when QCDs may be useful even for clients who are not yet required to take distributions. For 2026, the inflation-adjusted QCD limit is $111,000 per individual—that’s a tremendous opportunity for impact. 
• The SECURE 2.0 Act created a one-time opportunity that is sometimes referred to as the “Legacy IRA” provision. It allows an eligible IRA owner who is 70½ or older to make a one-time QCD to certain split-interest arrangements, subject to an inflation-adjusted statutory limit ($55,000 in 2026) and other requirements. Those arrangements can include certain types of charitable remainder trusts (CRTs) or charitable gift annuities (CGAs). The rules are quite specific, and the arrangement must meet statutory requirements. In practice, a CGA may be the more approachable option for some clients given the $55,000 limit and the additional administrative requirements associated with establishing and maintaining a CRT.

As you work with charitable clients who are age 70½ and older and own IRAs, please reach out! Our professional staff at the Community Foundation is happy to help structure a fund or funds to accomplish each client’s charitable goals.