Financial advisers across the country are creating networking organizations dubbed philanthropic advisers networks, or PANs, with the mission of helping advisers collaborate locally and also interact with philanthropists.
The first organization, founded nearly two years ago, was the Seattle Philanthropic Advisors Network.
Since then, a similar organization has been started in Denver and another is being launched in New York next week. Advisers in Los Angeles, San Francisco and Chicago are also working to start groups.
Although national philanthropic organizations already exist, advisers involved in the new groups said that they like them because they are more intimate and allow them to connect with peers in their area who are also interested in charitable giving.
The organizations hold events tailored to high-net-worth guests who speak and answer questions from advisers. This gives advisers a better understanding about what precisely clients are seeking from them, said Alan Pratt, a founding member of the Seattle Philanthropic Advisors Network.
This group holds about three events each year with well-known donors who speak and take questions from advisers. Philanthropists such as Bill Gates Sr. have spoken before the group, which has about 100 members, said Mr. Pratt, president of Pratt Legacy Advisors Inc. in Bellevue, Wash. His firm doesn't manage assets.
Mr. Gates is the co-chairman of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation of Seattle and the father of the co-founder of Microsoft Corp. of Redmond, Wash.
Mr. Pratt said that the idea came about after he talked with other advisers who said that they wanted to interact with recognized donors, as well as other advisers.
“One of the biggest things that defines us is we're collegial, and we don't want to view another investment guy as my competition,” Mr. Pratt said. “We're all in this together to work for the betterment of the clients.”
The Metro New York Philanthropic Advisors Network will hold its first meeting in that city on June 17. The speakers will be Andrew Tisch, co-chairman of the board and chairman of the executive committee at New York-based Loews Corp., and his wife, Ann Tisch, president and founder of the Young Women's Leadership School, an all-girls public school in East Harlem.
Yale Levey, a principal at Next Generational Wealth Planning LLC of Roseland, N.J., which manages about $70 million in assets, said that after the success of the Seattle group, he and other advisers decided that they wanted a similar organization in the New York metropolitan area.
“We decided to have lunch meetings and bring in a mega-wealthy person to talk about their philanthropy, so we can learn from them about why this is so important to them. What are they looking for in an adviser?” Mr. Levey said.
So far, the New York organization has 19 members, and 88 people are signed up for the first event.
Mr. Levey who also serves on the board of the International Association of Advisers in Philanthropy in Rocky Hill, Conn., said that PAN members also receive a free membership to that organization. The IAAP has also sent out a manual to help advisers who want to set up PANs in their areas, he said.
“We really hope to become the local go-to organization for advisers who want to understand and appreciate that philanthropic planning is an important part of their overall wealth-planning business,” Mr. Pratt said.
The Colorado Philanthropic Advisors Network, which like the Seattle group began in 2007, has 68 members, according to its president, Bill Eck.
Mr. Eck, an adviser at Truth North Connections, a Wheat Ridge, Colo., wealth advisory firm, said that the organization decided that it wanted to limit its membership to only those who advise clients. His firm does not manage assets.
Although some other PANs have decided to allow non-profit groups to become members, he said that his organization chose not to. Representatives of non-profit groups are welcome to attend events, however.
“We're spending time focusing on the networking side of it,” Mr. Eck said. “What's making us work is we're local and we're having local things.”
Mr. Eck said that the biggest advantage that the organization offers is that it helps advisers talk about charitable giving with their clients. Often, this can be an awkward conversation, he said.
Regg Wilson, founder of Cultivating Your Legacy, an advisory firm in Los Angeles, is working with other advisers to create a PAN that they hope will launch in the fall.
“I would like to see eventually people who are doing philanthropy be part of the network so they can share their successes,” he said.
“We learn so much from people's successes and mistakes,” said Mr. Wilson, whose firm does not manage assets. “It's a forum where ideas can be shared openly.”
Lisa Shidler can be reached at [email protected].
