Wealth Transfers. Values Can Too

Most people don't think of themselves as philanthropists.

They think of philanthropists as people with foundations named after them. People who write seven-figure checks. People who are, in a word, wealthy in a way that feels distant and a little abstract.

But here's what a growing number of financial advisors are discovering in their client conversations: the desire to give—to leave something behind that matters—lives in far more families than anyone realizes. It just doesn't always have a vocabulary. Or a plan.

This month, I asked our Financial Advisor Contributor Panel what planned giving strategies they think more advisors should be talking about—and why those conversations so rarely happen. What came back wasn't complicated. It was clear, human, and far more within reach than most families expect.

The Giving Is Already Happening — It Just Needs a Home

For many families, charitable giving isn't a new idea. It's already woven into everyday life—a check to the church, a recurring donation to a local nonprofit, a cause that has been quietly supported for years. What's missing isn't the desire. It's the structure that connects that desire to something lasting.

Alan Gorlick, has seen this pattern repeat itself across his practice. Many of his clients are already giving. They just haven't thought about how to make it permanent. Alan is direct about the barrier: "You don't have to be wealthy to have [an estate plan]. You can do really great things—and get some real benefits in the process."

That's the shift. From giving as a habit to giving as a legacy.

Through a will or trust, anyone can leave a charitable bequest to a qualifying nonprofit—a specific dollar amount, a percentage of their estate, or a designated asset. It doesn't require significant wealth to be meaningful. It just requires a plan that reflects what you actually care about. And for many families, putting that in writing for the first time is quietly one of the most powerful things they'll ever do.

"I Want to Make an Impact — But I Also Want My Kids to Be Okay"

That's what one client told Bob Chitrathorn, CFP®, CPFA®, Co-Founder & CFO of Simplified Wealth Management. And it's a sentence that stopped the conversation in its tracks—because it captured something most people feel but rarely say out loud.

The assumption built into that statement is that legacy and family security are in tension. That giving something meaningful away means taking something away from the people you love. It's a belief that quietly closes the door on a lot of planned giving conversations before they ever begin.

Bob walked his client through a different picture. "He didn't realize he could create income for his family and leave a meaningful gift to his favorite nonprofit at the same time. When he saw the numbers and the legacy side by side, he lit up."

That moment—the lit-up client—is what happens when the planning conversation finally catches up to what someone actually wants. In this case, the vehicle was a charitable remainder trust, a structure that can generate income for a named beneficiary over a set period of time, with the remaining assets eventually going to a designated charity. It's a more complex tool and not the right fit for every situation—but for families with appreciated assets and a desire to do both, it can open a door that most people didn't know existed. Trust & Will's guide to charitable remainder trusts is a helpful place to start for anyone curious about how this structure works.

What Bob's story makes clear is that the hesitation around planned giving is often less about the tools and more about the assumptions. Families assume they have to choose between taking care of their loved ones and honoring a cause. That assumption tends to dissolve when the conversation actually happens.

As Bob put it: "Legacy isn't always about how much—it's about being intentional with what you leave behind."

What Happens When You Ask the Right Question

Ryan L. Goldschmitt, founder, wealth advisor, and managing director of Geminus Wealth Partners, didn't set out to transform a client's estate plan. He set out to do good financial planning.

His client—a Florida retiree with one adult child in California—looked straightforward on paper. Diversified accounts. A family that cared for each other. A child who would eventually inherit. Standard enough.

But as Ryan worked with them more closely, something shifted. The client began asking different questions. Not just about what would transfer—but about what it would mean. About what they actually wanted their wealth to do.

"It really opened up a lot of other options around their estate plan that they didn't even think about," Ryan said. "Charitable giving is something they really didn't do a lot of until a couple years ago and now it's become a really important part of how they think about their plan."

That shift didn't happen because the client came in with a philanthropic agenda. It happened because someone asked a question that most planning conversations never get to—and then built a plan around the answer.

Once a family begins to see their wealth through the lens of values—not just logistics—the estate planning conversation changes entirely. The will or trust stops feeling like a legal formality. It starts feeling like a statement. A reflection of a life well lived and a legacy intentionally left.

Small Gifts. Real Legacy.

One of the most persistent myths around charitable bequests is that they're only meaningful at a certain dollar threshold. That unless a family is leaving a transformational gift, it isn't worth formalizing.

That myth stops a lot of important conversations before they start.

Charles Thomas III, CFP®, Founder of Intrepid Eagle Finance has seen clients hesitate for exactly this reason—assuming that the organizations they care most about aren't equipped to receive a formal bequest. "When I mention some of these things to clients for the first time, they'll say, 'Well, I go to a small church—I don't know if they can handle it.' And I tell them: they will figure out a way to accept a check. I promise you."

The size of the gift matters far less than the intention behind it. A bequest of any size—a few thousand dollars, a percentage of an estate, a specific asset—can fund programming, sustain operations, or simply signal to an organization that someone believed in their work enough to include them in their final chapter.

The neighborhood food bank. The alma mater's scholarship fund. The nonprofit that helped a family through something hard. These aren't too small to matter. They're exactly the kinds of places a charitable bequest was designed to reach.

Al Faber, CFP®, Founder of DIWY Financial Planning, noted that getting started is more accessible than most families assume: "The minimums have come way down. It's gotten much easier to do—and also to delegate to someone else once you pass."

That accessibility matters. Because when the process is straightforward, more families follow through. Tools like Trust & Will make it possible to create or update an estate plan in a way that feels manageable—not intimidating. And every family that follows through has done something quietly extraordinary—they've made sure that the causes they cared about in life continue to benefit from their legacy after it.

Making It Part of the Plan

The legacy conversation doesn't have to be complicated. For families working with a financial advisor, it often begins with a single question: is there a cause or organization you'd want included in your estate plan?

For advisors, building that question into the planning process—at onboarding, at annual reviews, at key life transitions—is one of the most meaningful things they can do for the families they serve. Not because of the tax mechanics or the estate planning strategy, but because it gives clients the chance to see their plan as something more than a document. Something that reflects who they are and what they stood for.

And when families are ready to act on those intentions, the path forward should be simple. A will or trust that includes a charitable bequest doesn't have to be a heavy lift. It just has to exist—drafted, signed, and ready to carry a legacy forward.

Trust & Will gives families and their advisors a modern, accessible way to create and update estate plans that reflect what matters most—without the complexity or cost that keeps so many people from getting started in the first place.

A Closing Thought

Legacy isn't only about what you leave behind. It's about what you choose to stand for while you're here.

A charitable bequest through a will or trust isn't a grand gesture reserved for the wealthy. It's one of the most direct ways a family can say: this is what we cared about, and we want that to continue. It doesn't require a foundation. It doesn't require a fortune. It requires intention—and a plan that reflects it.

The families who have this conversation tend not to forget it. And the advisors who learn to lead it often find that it becomes one of the most meaningful parts of their practice.

The only thing missing, sometimes, is the question that starts it all:

What do you want your wealth to stand for?

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