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Schwab spotlights new charitable trust platform
FWR Staff
3 November 2006
Donor-advised fund provider expands giving options for donors and advisors. Schwab Charitable is out with a new platform meant to give donors more flexible and innovative ways to support charities and give advisors a chance to put income-generating charitable instruments in their clients' portfolios.
"By offering a variety of philanthropic services, Schwab Charitable will provide solutions for each donor's unique circumstances and help donors better leverage the tax benefits associated with their giving," says Kim Wright-Violich, president of Schwab Charitable. "Individuals do not usually rely on their advisors for suggestions about what causes to support, but they do expect to receive guidance on the best way to give." Flexible The new platform, called Schwab Charitable Trust Services, lets independent registered investment advisors (RIAs) who custody with Schwab Institutional manage investments their clients have donated to charitable remainder trusts.
"Schwab Charitable has designed its Charitable Trust Services to be as easy and simple to use as possible -- similar, in that regard, to the donor-advised fund it developed years ago," Schwab says in a press release. "This unique service makes Schwab Charitable one of the only providers of professionally-trusteed charitable trusts to offer investment management participation by independent advisors."
The Charitable Trust Services is paired with its Schwab Charitable's donor-advised fund, which makes "it easier for individual donors to strategically and conveniently set up philanthropic accounts that provide significant income, capital gains and estate tax benefits," according to Schwab.
"Very few charitable organizations are able to serve as trustee and allow for independent investment management of a trust's assets," says Wright-Violich.
Schwab Charitable used to be known as the Schwab Fund for Charitable Giving. Established in 1999, the donor-advised fund has taken in more than $1.6 billion in donations so far, with more than 125,000 grants made for more than $600 million in donations to U.S. public charities.
Schwab Institutional, part of San Francisco-based Charles Schwab, provided custodial, operational and trading support to about 5,000 independent fee-based investment advisors with client assets of about $440 billion at the end of March 2006. -FWR
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