Donor-Advised Fund Succession Planning

If you have a Donor-Advised Fund (DAF), you most likely created an initial succession plan when you opened your account. A succession plan directs your DAF sponsor on how to distribute assets remaining in your charitable giving fund after your lifetime.

If you don’t have a succession plan, funds remaining in your DAF will generally be rolled into your DAF sponsor’s own charitable fund, not distributed according to your wishes.

It’s a good idea to review your succession plan and update to reflect your long-term philanthropic goals. To update your succession plan to include the ACLU, you have several options that are generally defined by your DAF sponsor but usually include:

• Distributing all funds remaining directly to the ACLU and/or other charities.
• Naming a successor trustee to continue granting — although they may not continue to support the same organizations you have.
• Creating an endowed DAF, naming several charities to receive ongoing annual distributions for 5 years or more.
• You may also combine options. For instance, you may wish to divide funds remaining so that some percentage is distributed directly to your chosen organization and some percentage is rolled into a new DAF with successor trustees.

Our gift planning team is available to discuss your succession plan and opportunities to make an impact now and in the future.