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Professional Advisors

Your wealth planning strategies with clients may include charitable giving – whether you call it generosity planning, legacy giving, or smart tax planning. Let us help you provide great services to your clients with our resources & charitable giving advice. Our mission is to inspire philanthropy and our advice comes for free!

Many of your clients may be interested in giving to their community, leaving a family legacy, and offsetting big tax events with charitable gifts. Many lawyers, accountants, financial planners and professional advisors partner with ACF to equip themselves with the tools and knowledge to fulfill their clients’ charitable wishes.

Have a client who wants to know more about supporting local causes that matter to them? Looking to support unconventional gifts for charitable giving? We can provide a range of options:

for local charities that align with your clients’ goals;
for appropriate vehicles for many types of charitable giving;
that help simplify multiple charitable bequests in wills; and
support tax saving strategies in your clients’ portfolios.

For resources specifically for Professional Advisors, visit Community Foundation of Canada’s e-resource guide.

We would be happy to speak at your firm regarding planned giving and how we might fit into the planning you do with clients. From the conventional to unconventional gift-giving, we have you covered. Please contact Areni.

The Community Foundation Advantage

What are the differences between establishing a fund at the Abbotsford Community Foundation and creating a private foundation?

ACF already has the services and staff in place to handle all the administrative requirements for a fund. Establishing a fund with us is simple and more cost-effective than establishing a private foundation, where the ongoing administration is typically costly and time-consuming. For more details, read our comparison summary.

Do I or my clients need to contact the Abbotsford Community Foundation when establishing a gift in a will? How would you suggest clients word such a gift?

Your clients have the right to privacy around their giving intentions and to remain anonymous. We encourage you to contact us to ensure that we can use all gifts as intended.

Sometimes, clients wish to simply update a will once with a charitable bequest to ACF per their fund agreement with us. In this way, they don’t need to keep updating their will if they have charities they would like to add or remove or change the amounts of their bequests. Instead, they can complete a fund agreement with us that outlines the bequests they wish to make per their will and we can disburse the funds, once received, accordingly. A donor can update their fund agreement, at no cost, rather than making potentially costly changes to their will. For wording clauses such as this, we recommend that you first discuss this with your legal counsel. We do have suggested clauses for gifts left in a will and have provided suggestions in our Sample Will Clauses resource.

How can I help my clients make a gift of appreciated securities to the Abbotsford Community Foundation?

Here at the ACF, we know that philanthropy is an integral part of wealth management. We will help you work with your clients to set up a donor-advised fund that integrates seamlessly into their wealth management plans and fulfils their charitable impact goals. You can help them get the tax benefits of donating publicly traded securities and enable them to support their charities of choice by utilizing the expertise of our team here at the ACF. Contact us today!

Can the Abbotsford Community Foundation serve as an executor of a donor’s estate?

No. Our Foundation policy does not allow us to act as an executor. We can work with you and your clients to develop a letter of intent as to how a planned gift will be used. We recommend donors appoint a qualified and capable organization or individual to administer their estate or serve as a trustee. In the case of an annuity, we would recommend working with an insurance company.

How does the Abbotsford Community Foundation invest the long-term assets of a charitable fund?

We work with an institutional investment manager to direct our pooled consolidated assets. The investment objectives for this fund are to protect the contributed capital and provide a stable income return to our fundholders for annual granting. For more details, read our Investment Policy and Spending Policy.

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