Donating Stock to Charities with Financial Advisors

Many investors have a financial advisor (FA) to improve their investment management, tax optimization, and more. Financial advisor can help you customize your portfolio, balance your account on a regular basis, and even introduce you to private investments, such as venture capital and hedge funds. There many top firms in the United States for wealth management advisor such as Morgan Stanley, JP Morgan, and UBS. As your portfolio accumulates gains from their advice, one of the best ways to manage your taxes is to donate the shares.

Donating stock is up to 37% more tax effective for donors. For sophisticated investors, donations can be coupled with other advanced strategies like open market buying immediately after donating and giving stock that has been tax loss harvested. These tax optimization can dramatically improve the total impact of your gift to the charitable organization.

Cocatalyst is a charitable entity that can liquidate the shares and then forward the funds as cash to the end recipient. We are not a donor-advised fund, but we provide all the benefits in a service focused on helping charities. Cocatalyst also integrates employer matches into the stock donation process which can double or more a donation gift without any additional out-of-pocket cost.

Whether you’re a donor with a FA, or a financial advisor yourself, Cocatalyst can streamline the process for you to 5 minutes or less. Make sure to read our thorough guide on the Cocatalyst form.

The biggest difference between our official support brokers and donating stock if you have your own financial advisor are the additional questions.

Note: We do not provide our account numbers or other details publicly. All donations must be started on the Cocatalyst donation form so we can authenticate them and have proof of request. In addition, we dynamically route requests to various accounts based on a variety of factors to improve the donor experience.

To begin, first select “Other Financial Advisor” from broker question options.

Second, you’ll need to put in the name of your broker.

Third, put in the fax number for the broker. Generally, this is not a 1-800 toll free number. If you have a FA point of contact, the fax number is often in their emails or website. For larger firms, this can be a central back office number.

Last, you’ll need to put in the financial advisor’s email.

Once that is completed, you’ll go resume back in the normal Cocatalyst donation form.