“Start, Stop, and Continue”: Your Charitable Advising Tune-Up

The world of tax, financial, and estate planning is changing rapidly. According to a 2026 Intuit QuickBooks survey of 725 U.S. accounting professionals, 86% expect AI to increase their ability to deliver advisory work over the next 12 months, and 44% want their firms to be known for growth-focused advisory by 2030.

Philanthropy is also becoming an increasingly important part of wealth management. Cerulli Associates projects that $18 trillion will flow to charitable causes through 2048 as part of the generational wealth transfer. For advisors, this creates opportunities to connect financial planning with clients’ values, family relationships, and legacy goals.

A simple “start, stop, and continue” approach can help you strengthen those conversations. At The Erie Community Foundation, we’re here to work alongside you, bringing local knowledge and charitable giving resources to the planning you already do.

Start asking what clients want their giving to accomplish

It can be tempting to begin a charitable planning conversation with donor-advised funds, charitable trusts, qualified charitable distributions, appreciated stock, and the tax benefits associated with each. Before exploring those tools, consider starting with the client’s purpose.

The 2026 Study of the Philanthropic Conversation from The Philanthropic Initiative (TPI) found meaningful gaps between what advisors think motivates high-net-worth clients and what clients themselves say.

Advisors ranked “being an inspiration for others” as the most common motivation for giving, cited by 51%. Among clients, this factor ranked 11th out of 12 motivations, at just 24%. Advisors were also nearly twice as likely as clients to identify reducing taxes as an important motivation: 40% versus 21%. Clients instead placed making an impact, feeling good about giving, and giving back at the top of their lists.

Start with one question:

The answer may reveal a cause that has touched a client’s family, a nonprofit they have supported for years, or a community need they hope to address. It may lead to a tax strategy, a particular giving vehicle, a family conversation, or something else entirely.

A few follow-up questions can help:

• Which causes or organizations are most meaningful to you?
• What experiences have shaped your interest in giving?
• What would a successful gift look like to you?

The Erie Community Foundation can help you explore what matters to your clients and identify charitable options that support their goals.

Stop and take a closer look at “too good to be true” arrangements

When a charitable arrangement promises extraordinary tax savings, it deserves careful review.

In July 2026, the U.S. Department of the Treasury and IRS issued final regulations identifying certain abusive charitable remainder annuity trust (CRAT) arrangements as “listed transactions,” triggering disclosure requirements for certain participants and their advisors.

The targeted arrangements generally involve transferring appreciated property to a purported CRAT, selling the property, using the proceeds to purchase a single premium immediate annuity, and misapplying tax rules in an effort to avoid ordinary income or capital gains taxes. Failure to comply with required disclosures may result in penalties.

Even if you never encounter this particular arrangement, the broader lesson applies: pause when a proposed strategy’s promised tax benefits seem disconnected from its charitable purpose.

Questions worth asking include:

• What charitable outcome will this arrangement achieve?
• How will the charity benefit, and when?
• Have the legal, tax, and reporting requirements been independently reviewed?

If an unfamiliar charitable strategy comes across your desk, consider bringing The Erie Community Foundation into the conversation early. We can discuss the charitable goals and potential giving options while you and the appropriate specialists evaluate the legal and tax considerations.

Continue bringing the family into the conversation

Charitable giving can open the door to meaningful conversations across generations.

The same 2026 TPI study found that 95% of advisors believe discussing philanthropy is important for building relationships with clients’ extended families, up from 71% in 2018. Clients see the value, too: 78% of high-net-worth clients said including extended family members in philanthropic conversations is important.

These conversations also strengthen advisors’ practices. Eighty-eight percent of advisors said philanthropic conversations deepen existing client relationships, while 92% said they help establish new relationships.

Meanwhile, ultra-high-net-worth Americans—those with a net worth of $30 million or more—donated approximately $107 billion to charity in 2025, according to Altrata’s High Net Worth Philanthropy 2026 report, as reported by InvestmentNews.

There is still room for advisors to expand these discussions. As highlighted in InvestmentNews’ coverage of the TPI study, 75% of high-net-worth clients say they would be more likely to select an advisor who is knowledgeable about philanthropy, yet only 45% of advisors say they discuss philanthropy with most of their clients.

For clients who want to involve children or grandchildren, start with shared interests and room for different perspectives:

• What values would you like your family’s giving to reflect?
• Are there organizations or causes you would enjoy learning about together?
• How would you like the next generation to participate?

A conversation about the causes a client cares about can provide a natural way to involve family members, learn what matters to them, and begin building relationships across generations.

The Erie Community Foundation can help families explore options for giving together, establishing a family giving tradition, and carrying charitable wishes into the future.

We’re Here to Help

Your client does not need to have every detail decided before beginning the conversation. We would be happy to sit down with you and your client, listen to what matters most to them and explore options that fit with the financial and estate-planning work already underway.

We respect the relationship you have built with your client and see our role as a partner in the charitable planning process.

Together, we can help your clients inspire generosity, engage the people and causes they care about, and empower communities across our region, today and tomorrow.

For more information, contact Steve Weiser, Vice President of Philanthropic Services, at SWeiser@ErieCommunityFoundation.org or 814.413.7345.