A Competency Framework for the Professional Advisor related to Gift Planning

PURPOSE OF THE FRAMEWORK

CAGP enjoys the reputation of providing the most comprehensive gift planning training programs in Canada.  

The goal of this initiative is to develop a competency framework that can be used as a lens and a guide for the curriculum development that provides the foundation for CAGP educational offerings for professional advisors with the goal of encouraging and providing tools to professional advisors to raise philanthropy opportunities with their clients, and of maintaining and growing CAGP’s current reputation as an educational leader.

This competency framework complements the competency framework for charity-based gift planners.  

The first step in developing educational training programs to help professional advisors acquire gift planning competencies is to establish what those core competencies are.  This is the focus of this report.  

The CAGP Education Committee will use this competency framework to assist in its current and ongoing review of the syllabus of education offerings, to ensure content is current, consistent and meeting the needs of the professional advisor target markets.  

It will also enable the educational courses to eventually be modularized by topic, provide clarity of content for each topic within each course, and support the customization of CAGP educational offerings for targeted audiences and their specific educational preferences and needs.

DEFINITIONS

CAGP defines it as follows:

The donor/client-centered process of planning charitable gifts, whether current or future gifts, that meet philanthropic goals and balances personal, family, and tax considerations.

The ability to do something successfully.

A set of defined behaviours that provide structure that identify criteria for recruitment, evaluation, development and retention of an employee.  

Many professions have competency models as their foundations.  These models vary widely; many confuse behaviours with skills, some are complex and in-depth, some brief and almost generic.  

For the purpose of this initiative, which is primarily educational, the development aspect is the focus.

COMPETENCY FRAMEWORK DEVELOPMENT

The following is a recommended competency framework which reflects the two pillars within the gift planning profession:  enabling and technical.  

Enabling Competencies

With the client.  The ability to:

1. develop long-term, trust-based relationships with clients that support all the client’s needs including opportunities for philanthropy, the desire for a legacy or for positive impact in the world;
2. actively listen and retain what is being said;
3. be comfortable exploring and understanding clients’ values, what is important to them and how they may wish to have an impact in the world;
4. explore with clients if and how they might want to involve others in their family with their philanthropy;
5. demonstrate empathy, understanding and comfort around end of life discussions related to philanthropy;
6. translate sometimes complex technical, legal and tax-related language and concepts, where necessary, into plain English to aid in the client’s comprehension of philanthropic concepts.

With stakeholders.  The ability to:

1. build collaborative and mutually beneficial networks of trusted legal, tax, financial and insurance advisors as well as charity personnel in order to best meet the needs of clients;
2. work effectively with family members and/or the client’s other advisors and relevant charity personnel;
3. share philanthropic principles and opportunities with others in the community.

Ethics and Judgment:

1. adherence to the CAGP Code of Ethics and other codes of ethics relevant to the professional advisor’s credentials;
2. ability to identify where a client’s needs (due to competence, financial viability, family commitments, and other factors) align or differ from a plan or product that the advisor may personally favour;
3. ability to identify and retain confidential information that may not be appropriate to share with others;
4. knowing when to re-direct a client to more appropriate gift planning vehicles or charities, whether or not such is in the best interest of the person undertaking gift planning discussions;
5. ability to identify and avoid conflict of interest scenarios;
6. understanding of the concept of “no gift before its time” (in the best interests of the client);
7. appreciation of how to appropriately approach and work with charities to assist them to understand the services which you may provide to them in order to enhance their offerings to donors.

Technical Competencies

Knowledge of Gift Planning Vehicles: An understanding of:

1. a variety of gift vehicles such as bequests, securities, registered funds, insurance, annuities, gifts in kind for both current and deferred giving and how each may be applied to provide specific benefits to clients, their families and those charities that are meaningful to them;
2. the opportunity and impact various options have for the client (including degree of control, access to capital, timing and tax treatment considerations);
3. advantages of corporate vs. personal giving;
4. how to “plan for impact” in order to assist clients to make effective donations;
5. when to refer the client to other specific professional advisors to assist.

Knowledge of How Charities Operate:  An understanding of:

1. the philanthropic and charitable sector landscape, emergent trends that are impacting it and how they are influencing your clients’ giving decisions;  
2. how charities operate and charities’ governance principles;  
3. how planned gifts (deferred and current) and major gifts are traditionally cultivated, solicited and stewarded by charities;
4. how to work with charities to communicate and address the interests of clients.

For more information, contact Erin Kuhns, Manager, Education and Training:
1-888-430-9494 Ext. 222 or email ekuhns@cagp-acpdp.org.