What Is a Philanthropic Plan?

Your clients didn't build their wealth by accident. And most of them didn't build it purely for its own sake.

Every single one of your clients makes or manages their wealth in order to do good. What "good" means varies, but it almost always goes beyond financial security. It necessarily includes some of the following: passing on values to their children or their community. Expressing their faith. Building something that outlasts them. Creating a world in which others have the same opportunities they've had. Supporting the arts and culture that make life richer.

A recent study of ultra-wealthy families found that 85.8% believe it is crucial to leave behind more than financial assets — including values, morals, and a philanthropic vision. But you didn't need a study to prove this.

A philanthropic plan is what makes all of it possible. And right now, most of your clients don't have one.

What a Philanthropic Plan Actually Is

A philanthropic plan is not a list of charities. It's not a year-end tax strategy. It's not a vague intention to "give more next year."

A philanthropic plan may be the single most important way for you to have the conversations with your clients about what really matters to them beyond investment returns.

It's a structured framework that captures who your client is as a giver, what they care about, how they want their money to work in the world, and where their boundaries are. It turns values into decisions. It gives a family language for saying yes to the right opportunities and saying no — with confidence and without guilt — to everything else.

Think of it as the giving equivalent of a financial plan. Without one, every charitable ask feels urgent, every gala invitation triggers pressure, and every December becomes a scramble. With one, giving becomes proactive, focused, and aligned with what the client actually cares about.

What Goes Into One

A good philanthropic plan starts with understanding where your client is right now. What do they value? What change do they want to see in the world? What has shaped how they think about generosity? These are the inputs — the real conversation between advisor and client about what matters and why.

From that conversation, a plan produces several core components.

A giving identity — a narrative summary of what drives this person or family's generosity. What shaped them. What motivates them. How they think about change.

A North Star statement — a short articulation of where they want their giving to go over the next year. Not a permanent commitment, but a snapshot of current priorities.

Focus areas — the causes, populations, and geographies that matter most, ranked by priority. Not everything they care about, but the places where they want their giving to concentrate.

A generosity statement — guiding principles for all giving decisions. The rules of engagement that apply whether the ask comes from a neighbour, a gala, or a crisis on the news.

An allocation framework — how the annual giving budget divides across focus areas, including room for unplanned opportunities and emergencies.

And giving boundaries — what the client says no to, and the language for doing it gracefully. This is often the most valuable piece. Donors who know what they're not funding feel liberated, not restricted.

The Conversations You're Missing

Here's the part that should matter to every wealth advisor reading this.

Your clients are already having conversations about the good they want to create in the world. They're talking to their spouse about what matters. They're thinking about what they want their children to learn about money and generosity. They're wrestling with how their faith calls them to give. They're wondering how to respond when disaster strikes.

These are some of the most meaningful conversations in your client's life. And in most advisory relationships, someone else is leading them — or nobody is.

Without a philanthropic planning process, you're locked out of the faith conversation. The next-generation conversation. The legacy conversation. The "what is all of this for?" conversation. Not because you don't care, but because you don't have a structured way in.

That's a problem — because those conversations inform everything else. A client's philanthropic values shape their estate plan, their tax strategy, their family governance, and increasingly, their choice of advisor.

Why Most Donors Don't Have One

The reason is simple: nobody has walked them through the process.

Advisors manage investments. Accountants handle tax. Lawyers do estate planning. But nobody owns the conversation about what this wealth is actually for. It falls through the cracks, or it gets reduced to "would you like to make a charitable donation before year-end?"

The data confirms this. The 2025 Bank of America Study of Philanthropy found that nearly 7 in 10 affluent individuals say personal values are the primary basis for their giving decisions. Meanwhile, 87% of high-net-worth clients say they want charitable and philanthropic planning from their advisor — and only 6% receive it. The values are there. The demand is there. The structure for surfacing and acting on them is not.

And clients assume their giving isn't large enough to warrant a plan. But a family giving $10,000 a year who feels scattered and guilty about saying no needs a framework just as much as a family giving $500,000 or $5,000,000.

What Changes When You Have One

For the client, giving becomes intentional instead of reactive. They know their focus areas. They have language for declining asks that don't fit. Year-end isn't a scramble. They feel strategic instead of scattered. Satisfaction goes up — because they can see how their giving connects to what they actually care about.

For the advisor, the shift is just as significant. You're now leading the most meaningful conversation about your client's wealth — the one about purpose, not just performance. You understand their values in a way that informs every other planning decision you make together. You differentiate your practice from every other advisor who only talks about returns.

And you retain the next generation. Research consistently shows that 80% of heirs fire their parents' wealth advisor after inheriting, citing lack of shared values and outdated tools among the top reasons. Meanwhile, 97% of millennials consider charitable giving part of their overall wealth strategy. The advisor who leads the philanthropic planning conversation is the one who keeps the family.

A Living Document, Not a One-Time Exercise

A philanthropic plan should evolve. Life changes, priorities shift, children grow up, new causes emerge. The best plans are revisited annually — not carved in stone.

The question is whether you have a process for creating one. Until recently, the options were limited: expensive consulting engagements, static PDF workbooks, or improvisation. That's changing. Tools like WellAdvised now make it possible for advisors to guide a client through a structured philanthropic planning process and produce a professional, shareable plan — one that connects to real Canadian charity data and updates as the client's life evolves.

The conversation your clients want to have is waiting. The question is who's going to lead it.