Professional advisers are failing to provide philanthropy advice

Sixty-six per cent of Britain's wealthiest people believe that lawyers, accountants and wealth managers are undervaluing the importance of providing philanthropy advice to their clients.

Almost three quarters (73 per cent) would also like such advice to be free or low cost, as they prefer to use not-for-profit service providers to engage in charitable work and manage donations.

The figures have been released by the Charities Aid Foundation (CAF) who surveyed 1,005 individual donors in the UK, with a minimum £1m of liquid assets and an average wealth of £7.5m

David Stead, executive director for philanthropy and development at the CAF, commented: 'The appeal of comprehensive, structured advice on philanthropy is growing significantly, presenting opportunities for wealth managers, lawyers, accountants and other professional advisers to serve their clients in an area of deep personal importance.

'Stretching their services into this space or partnering with others to do so, can help advisers establish themselves as a trusted authority and help philanthropic capital get to where it is needed most.'

The report also finds that even if advice is provided for free, advisers will benefit from an enhanced relationship as they'll be able 'to better understand clients' longer term goals', and are more likely to be instructed to handle them.

There is particular demand for advice on the tax benefits of giving, as 44 per cent of respondents took professional advice in this area.

Meanwhile those who took advice were likely to donate twice as much as those who did not, giving an average of £15,700 to charity in the previous year, compared to the overall average annual donation of £8,800.

Binyamin Ali is assistant editor of Private Client Adviser