Category: Late Career

So it has been a while since establishing a Donor-Advised Fund (DAF) through Vanguard, and in the process I discovered a few techniques for harnessing these beasts that seem worthy of note. As for all things in life, if I’d known a bit more earlier, there would have been considerable gain/pain avoided, so perhaps others can learn a few things from this experience.

Týr learns a few things setting up his DAF (Bauer 1911)

DAFs are a great tool, so the opportunities for improvement are really more about refinements rather than a vicious critique; don’t let this commentary preclude you from advancing. Here are a few topics for consideration if you are contemplating a DAF:

1. Looking further ahead – charge the “Converter”
2. Looking further abroad
3. Sandboxing your SWR

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Several years ago I had come across Donor-Advised Funds (DAF) as one avenue to do charitable giving in the mid/late career phase. It occurred to me that the mechanics of a DAF can be configured to parallel in many respects the aims of people like me that try to center their own lives and ideally their communities around sustainable trajectories. There are some tactics to alter how we might value setting up a DAF that might encourage more people to follow this path. I may have approached my DAF differently if I had learned about some strategies sooner, perhaps even as early as 5-10 years before implementing one. For those of you in high tax brackets and still with a healthy set of deductions to itemize, a DAF can be especially advantageous. So if it helps, here are several considerations to ponder well in advance.

Think several moves ahead

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