Where are the EA-aligned financial advisors for major donors?

By Spencer R. Ericson 🔸 @ 2023-08-11T17:55 (+18)

Recently, I've been talking to a bunch of EAs who need help with financial planning.

Lots of financial advisors know how to maximize wealth. But what about maximizing donations, using tax strategy, estate planning, and matching?

Do you know of financial advisors in your country that work with individuals, small businesses, or foundations, and know how to maximize the amount someone can donate over their lifetime?

A financial advisor who can give personal advice on:

Any recommendations, in any region? Maybe we can start a thread that puts the financial advisors aligned with our goals all onto one page here.

If anyone wants to start an Airtable, you'll have my eternal gratitude.


Abby Hoskin @ 2023-08-12T03:09 (+8)

I think individuals donating less than $1 million a year need very different advice than big donors moving millions a year (e.g., Dustin Moskovitz). 

If you are in the former category, any smart normal financial advisor can give good advice.  It is hard to find smart retail financial advisors who aren't trying to sell you some random high fee product, so it makes sense for you to collect recommendations. I just don't think they need to be EA aligned; lots of wealthy people ask these exact same questions with the goal of maximizing their donations to whatever their chosen cause is. 

Jason @ 2023-08-11T23:41 (+5)

Probably as important as the quality of the adviser is their fee structure. For a lot of these questions, I believe you want a fee-only advisor, whose compensation is strictly an hourly rate and not based on commissions or assets under management. E.g.: for an unbiased answer to "donate now vs. invest and donate later," you don't want your advisor to have a financial interest in one of the outcomes!

MvK @ 2023-08-11T23:42 (+3)

https://www.yieldandspread.org/ comes to mind :)

Robi Rahman @ 2023-08-11T18:22 (+2)

There are lots of these! I saw several orgs that provide that service while I was working on EAGxNYC. I can look them up later and get back to you (but we're really busy with the conference coming up so it might take a while).

warrenjordan @ 2023-10-20T16:43 (+1)

Please share! Looking for resources as well.

Spencer Ericson @ 2023-08-11T18:49 (+1)

Amazing. Maybe I'll see you there!

warrenjordan @ 2023-10-20T16:39 (+1)

Late to the party. @Spencer Ericson Were you able to find a financial advisor?