As the Will Power campaign forges ahead in its aim to inspire more Canadians to leave an estate gift to charity, we know that professional advisors have a big role to play. Which is why we are grateful to Founding Partners and sector sponsors like CALU (Conference for Advanced Life Underwriting), an association made up of leaders in the life insurance and financial advisory industry, who are helping to advance the philanthropic conversation.

Recently, the BC Financial Services Authority released a further bulletin on “Charitable donation of Life Insurance Policies in British Columbia” . We know this issue has been of great concern to our members in British Columbia and across Canada over the past year. As part of their bulletin, the Authority has encouraged the charitable sector to both communicate current best practices for gifts of life insurance, and to develop a document on this important area of philanthropy.

This month we wanted to highlight a great idea that is growing in the legacy marketing community – gathering to talk about marketing and metrics. We have a group that meets in the Greater Toronto Area and our member Sarah who recently moved from Toronto to Vancouver, was part of organizing the first one there, late last year.

GIFT PLANNING DESIGNATION FOR ADVISORS AVAILABLE

Together with Knowledge Bureau and Spire Philanthropy, we are pleased to announce that all three online courses in the MFA-P™ -  designation program are now available.  The program, which has been written and tested over the past year, will allow advisors to obtain specialized professional credentials that enable them to provide formal gifting plans for individuals and families interested in strategic philanthropy.