As a former fund-raiser for nonprofits, Kathleen Rehl is bothered by the fact that financial advisors and clients will often work together for years without the subject of charitable giving ever coming up.

That's why, when she opened up shop as a certified financial planner in 1996, she decided things would be different in her office.

Rehl, in fact, broaches the subject of philanthropy with all her clients. Every one. But she's not pushy about it. Instead, Rehl opens up a door to her clients and lets them decide if they want to walk through.

What Rehl does is offer all clients a 10% discount on their first year's annual retainer fee, if they opt to devote the discounted amount to a charity of their choice. In her eight years as a planner, during which time she has built up a practice that services 50 clients, Rehl has never had anyone refuse the offer.

Indeed, she says, many clients take the offer and run with it-continuing to support charitable causes for years after making that first donation. In one case, she made the 10% charity offer to a new client who was working on a doctorate degree at a local university, and who had never thought about engaging in philanthropy before. The client said she'd think about it and left the office. Two weeks went by without a word from the client, leading Rehl to believe she'd forgotten about the whole thing. But then the client called, saying she wanted to devote the 10% to a local women's shelter. It turns out she spent the entire two weeks researching charities, Rehl says. In another case, a couple took time to think about it and decided on giving the money to a children's theater in their town.

"In both cases, they have continued to give," Rehl says. Rehl finds that most clients do have causes that they feel strongly and passionate about, but for whatever reason never pondered the idea of acting on those feelings with an organized plan for charitable giving.

In most of these cases, all it took was a discussion about philanthropy, and the many vehicles that can be used to give to charities, to spark a client into action, says Rehl. The problem, as she sees it, is that not enough financial advisors are providing that spark. "It's not discussed by some professionals, maybe because they're uncomfortable talking about something they don't do themselves," she says.

Yet there are advisors who are recognizing that charitable giving plays an important part in many clients' lives, and that financial advisors are among those from whom they're looking for assistance. Advisors also add that philanthropic assistance is not just being sought by the superwealthy, but by those lower on the asset chain as well.

Advisors, for instance, don't necessarily have to get into the business of administering private foundations to play a role in their clients' philanthropic planning, says Michelle Goldstein, owner of Goldstein Financial Future in Dallas. Her advice to clients ranges from reminding them to deduct mileage for weekly volunteering efforts to the mixing and matching of charitable remainder and lead trusts.

One of the most important roles an advisor can play, she says, is to ensure that clients' goals are suitably matched with the proper charitable vehicle. "I think the biggest mistake people make is not getting the biggest bang for their buck," Goldstein says.

At the Kanaly Trust Company in Houston, Vice Chairman Steve Kanaly says the subject of philanthropy usually starts with a simple question to clients: Who are you working for? In other words, Kanaly says, are clients working for their children, charity or the U.S. government? "It really comes down to mathematics and what transfers they want to make during their lifetimes," he says.

Most often, the government is the big loser when that question is answered. Surprisingly, charity is often the big winner, even more so than children, he adds.

Many affluent clients, he says, don't want to leave too much money to their children, which results in assets spilling off into charity. "Many clients feel money can do something to people as well as for them-make them lazy and maybe not as professionally driven as the parents want," he says.

Putting the right tools to use gets even more complicated as the amount of assets involved increases. This has led to more emphasis being put on philanthropy at some firms that focus on affluent clients.

Charles D. Haines started a philanthropy department at his firm-where clients have minimum assets of $1 million-four years ago to prepare for the massive wealth transfer that will take place as the baby boomers age and pass away. It's been estimated that about $41 trillion will be passed down through inheritances over the next 50 years, with $6 trillion of the total going to charity.

"It was a natural progression," Haines, owner of Charles D. Haines LLC in Birmingham, Ala., says of the decision to start the philanthropy department, which consists of a full-time CFA and an assistant devoted totally to client philanthropic needs. Those duties include running several family private foundations.

"Whatever the baby boomers are doing becomes a driving force," Haines continues. "We needed to get ahead of the curve."

The department got off to a slow start, which Haines attributes to the fact that it was launched at the start of the three-year bear market. Now that investors are starting to recover, he says activity in the department is picking up.

The firm's services are also being used for outsourcing. Haines says a local advisory firm has approached him about handling the philanthropic services for a family with assets in the nine-figure range.

Leslie Carlisle, who directs the firm's philanthropy department, says that one key role she plays in clients' planning is making them aware of the tradeoffs involved in any decision they make. For clients genuinely interested in giving as a purely philanthropic endeavor, and who want to have direct control over where the money goes, family foundations are often the suitable option, Carlisle says.

For those who don't want to be as actively involved in the ongoing operations of their charitable plan, a donor-advised fund may be a better choice, she says. "It really depends on what their needs and priorities are," she says. "The options could range from annual giving to creating a donor-advised fund."

Although she adds that tax deductions usually are not the primary reason that clients engage in charitable giving, they sometimes can drive a strategy.

"As an example, if they're most strongly motivated by tax deductions, we would not recommend a family foundation," she says. "That's the least tax-advantaged of any of those options."

Some advisors are finding that gift annuities are fitting the needs of many older clients who want to give, but need the income off their assets during their lifetime. The gift annuities are contracts between donors and charities, in which the charity takes control of the donated assets and promises a lifetime annuity to the donor.

Because the payout goes up with the age of the donor and are simple in their operation, advisors say they are often suitable for retirees.

"I use them a lot with seniors," says Rehl. "It's a wonderful way to get out of appreciated assets."

In one case, a couple in their seventies had farmland in Illinois that was worth about $720,000, with a cost basis of $74,200. They decided to put it into an immediate gift annuity, which, with the wife at 77 and the husband at 79, resulted in an annual payout of $49,680, Rehl says.

The move also resulted in a partial tax deduction. Of the payout, $3,513 is tax-free and $30,716 is subject to a 15% capital gains tax rate, with the rest subject to ordinary income tax.

"Most of the people who use them are retired or real close to retirement and don't want the hassle" of dealing with a foundation or donor-advised fund, she says. "They just want to get their check every month and that's it."

The economic downturn has helped fuel a surge in the use of charitable gift annuities, as investors look for stable income in the market, says Claudia Sangster, director of philanthropy services with Harris myCFO Inc., the family office division of Harris Private Bank serving clients with $25 million or more in assets. "You don't have any upside potential and it's not a hedge against inflation, but it does protect income," she says.

Also working in the favor of gift annuities is that they generally receive more favorable tax treatment than a charitable remainder trust. "People like the fact that the check is the same every month and backed up by all the assets of the institution to which they've donated," Sangster says.

An advisor should play a role in a client's philanthropy plans no matter what route they chose, says Michael Haubrich, owner of Financial Service Group in Racine, Wis. Haubrich is often involved in helping clients-generally in their late sixties-pursue gift-giving goals, including the establishment of client remainder trusts and other vehicles.

One reason advisors don't get involved in such matters, he says, is that from a business perspective they may see it as lost assets. Or they may be shunted aside as the estate planning attorneys take over, he adds.

If advisors are comprehensive in their planning approach, he says, they should be part of the process every step of the way. "I really am the strategist in the process," Haubrich says. "I use the attorneys, accountants and administrative companies as tacticians" to carry out the plans that he has devised with clients.

Jeffrey Daniher, co-owner of Ritter Daniher Financial Advisory LLC in Cincinnati, concurs, saying advisor involvement in clients' charitable giving is a sign of a healthy advisor/client relationship. Daniher says he's worked with about 20% of his clients on philanthropy pans, including eight who have donor-advised funds. He also makes regular use of the Greater Cincinnati Foundation as a vehicle for his client's gift giving. He notes that since those donated assets are not managed by his firm, philanthropy work doesn't benefit the firm's bottom-line. But he feels it strengthens his relationship with clients.

"If it's in the client's best interest, we do our best to help them," he says. "It's a triple win. The charity wins, the client wins and we win, because we help cement the relationship."