Most clients who open a donor-advised fund (DAF) without their advisor are not trying to leave anyone out. Often, they simply did not think of giving as a financial planning decision. Charitable planning felt like a separate category, so they handled it separately.
To keep them from opening a DAF on their own, the reliable move is to raise giving before the client goes looking. By the time a DAF exists, the planning decisions that come with it have already been made. Advisors who build the charitable giving conversation into their routine stay part of the decision making, particularly when they work with a DAF sponsor that lets the advisor continue managing the assets.
Why Clients Handle Charitable Giving on Their Own
The conversation has likely already started. It just started without you.
Research cited in AEF’s white paper, Unlocking Generosity: The Advisor’s Role in Inspiring Purpose and Impact, found that 90% of high-net-worth individuals discuss charitable giving with someone. Spouses and partners top the list at 84%, followed by family members at 48%, friends at 37%, and nonprofits at 33%. The financial advisor is not who they are turning to.
The numbers showing the charitable planning gap also bear this out. 87% of clients say they want charitable planning advice and 81% of advisors say they provide it, but only 6% of clients say they actually receive it. Bank of America research in Unlocking Generosity found that clients bring up charitable planning more often than their advisors do.
Opening a fund online is easy. When giving never comes up in a review meeting, clients draw the reasonable conclusion that it sits outside your scope, and they look into it themselves.
When clients decide to open a DAF without advisor involvement, they also make a set of planning decisions by default rather than by design: which asset funds the account, what tax year the deduction lands in, how the balance is invested, and how granting fits with everything else in the plan. Advisors who integrate charitable planning can be part of those decisions.
Why Advisors Put Off Discussing Philanthropy
The hesitation is usually not indifference. Unlocking Generosity found that only 24% of advisors feel very confident in their charitable planning knowledge, and Stanford research summarized in the paper describes advisors who want to participate but lack the tools and language to start. One advisor put the problem plainly: “How do I start the conversation if they do not ask me a question?”
You do not need to be a philanthropy expert to open the door. You need a question and a place in your process to ask it. You can even start with a simple framework of 5 steps for incorporating charitable planning into your practice.
Four Moments to Raise Charitable Giving First
You do not need a new meeting to talk about philanthropy. Four points already on your calendar are natural places to start:
- Discovery and onboarding. Younger clients in particular expect philanthropy on the table early. Ask what causes matter to them alongside the questions you already ask about goals and family. It costs one question and establishes that giving belongs in the plan.
- The annual review. Consistency matters more than the specific entry point. When giving is a standing agenda item, it stops being a separate topic a client might quietly handle alone.
- Tax season. A client raising deductions, a concentrated position, or an unusually high-income year could hand you the opening. Gift bunching and appreciated-asset strategies are natural extensions of a conversation already underway.
- Liquidity events. Business sales, equity grants, and inheritances are among the most common triggers for funding a DAF. They are also the moments with the least room for error because the planning window closes when the transaction does.
A useful move at any of these moments is to ask a reflective question. Unlocking Generosity offers a set of questions designed to move clients out of auto-response mode, including: “What issues do you care about most in daily life?” and “What role do you see your family playing in shaping your charitable legacy?” These questions cannot be answered on a form, which is exactly the point.
Three Signals a Client Is Already Thinking About Giving
Clients rarely announce that they are ready to formalize their giving. They hint at it, and the hints are easy to miss if you are only listening for the word “charity.”
Signal 1: They talk about taxes, never about giving
A client fixated on a high-income year, a concentrated position, or a deduction they cannot use is describing a charitable planning problem in tax language.
Unlocking Generosity includes a case study from advisor Phil Cordano, whose clients contributed $1.1 million of highly appreciated stock to a DAF each year across four peak earning years. The cumulative federal tax benefit was roughly $2.66 million, and the couple entered retirement with $4.4 million already set aside in the DAF for the causes they care about.
What to ask: “If we could time a better tax deduction through charitable giving, where would you want the money to go?”
Signal 2: Another professional got there first
A CPA or estate attorney often raises giving before the wealth advisor does. Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, quoted in Unlocking Generosity, puts it bluntly: “Many a great donor has started their giving journey in their accountant’s office.”
That is not a loss, but it is a signal that the conversation has started without you. It can also mean a structure gets recommended before anyone has asked what the client is actually trying to accomplish. In another case study, an entrepreneur preparing to sell a business valued at over $100 million was initially advised to fund a private foundation with company shares. A DAF fit her situation better, and she contributed a $25 million interest before any letter of intent was in place.
What to ask: “What has your CPA suggested so far, and what were you hoping it would accomplish?”
Signal 3: They are already giving, just without a plan
Plenty of clients give steadily and have never once called it philanthropy. They write checks in December, respond to whatever crosses their desk, and struggle to explain the logic behind any of it. Morgan Stanley advisor Noel Pacarro Brown describes this in Unlocking Generosity as “giving in a buckshot manner,” and notes that when advisors help clients increase their clarity, satisfaction and referrals follow.
What to ask: “Where did your giving go last year, and did any of it feel like it mattered more than the rest?”
These questions do not require you to explain a giving vehicle. They require you to be in the room and get the client talking, which is the entire point.
What Advisors Ask About Charitable Planning
A few questions come up almost every time an advisor starts building giving into the practice, and we have answered some of them below.
When should I bring up charitable giving?
Early, then regularly. Assume the client is already talking about it with others. Unlocking Generosity found that 90% of high-net-worth individuals discuss charitable giving with a spouse, partner, family member, or friend. They are having the conversation. The question is whether you are part of it.
What if the client has already opened a DAF elsewhere?
An open account is not the end of the story. Unlocking Generosity describes giving as a journey that often starts reactively, with checks written in response to requests, but grows more intentional as clients gain experience and wealth. Many clients are early in that arc, which means the DAF you just learned about may be the smallest one they ever fund. Ask what they have granted so far, what they would do differently, and what they want the giving to accomplish. That work puts you in position for the next contribution, which is usually larger than the first and made with a clearer sense of purpose. If consolidating serves the plan, our experts can help you and your client with transferring donor-advised funds to AEF.
What if my client wants to keep their existing account where it is?
Respect the decision and stay useful. Where the account sits matters less than whether you are part of the decisions attached to it: which assets fund it, what tax year the contributions land in, and how granting interacts with income and estate planning. Few clients give only once, and the more you understand how they give, the better you can plan around it.
What if the client is weighing a private foundation instead?
Ask about control, privacy, administrative appetite, and legacy. Many families end up using both vehicles, but it helps to know when to open donor-advised funds versus private foundations.
How do I bring up a DAF without it feeling like a sales pitch?
Ground the recommendation in what the client is trying to accomplish. Charitable dollars that are managed alongside the rest of the portfolio stay connected to the tax, estate, and investment work already underway, and clients feel that integration in the outcomes. There are some keyrationales for financial advisor management of donor-advised fund assets, and they benefit the client as much as the advisor.
Is charitable planning actually worth the time it takes?
Cerulli data in Unlocking Generosity shows that advisors serving high-net-worth clients, who are the advisors most likely to offer charitable giving strategies as part of comprehensive planning, are growing roughly 50% faster than advisors who do not serve that market. DAFs now hold $327.87 billion and account for 23.1% of all individual giving in the U.S., according to the DAF Research Collaborative’s Annual DAF Report 2025, so this is not a niche conversation.
How AEF Keeps the Advisor Involved
AEF is one of the nation’s largest independent DAF sponsors, and DAFs are not one product line among many here. They are the entire focus. And when a client establishes a fund at AEF, their advisor stays the advisor. The advisor manages the assets and stays involved as the donor recommends grants.
The result is a DAF that keeps charitable assets as part of the client’s financial plan rather than an account that lives somewhere else.
Start the Conversation Before Someone Else Does
Charitable giving is one of the few topics where a single question can change the shape of a client relationship. The advisors who bring it up first are the ones clients come back to.
Ready to open a DAF for a client? Contact AEF and let’s talk DAFs.