Sussex Professional Advisers – We need you!

In this personal reflection, Martin Roberts, Trustee of Sussex Community Foundation, shares how his understanding of Sussex has grown over the past eight years, and why professional advisers have such an important role to play in connecting their clients with opportunities to support local communities.

10 years ago today, I was a partner with a large city law firm, commuting to London every day from Haywards Heath station (no working from home then!).

Although I had lived in the county for over 20 years, I knew very little about Sussex or the needs of its residents. I had no idea that Sussex includes 48 neighbourhoods which are in the 10% most deprived areas in England and which are home for 80,000 people.

For the last eight years I have been lucky enough to work alongside some fantastic people as a trustee of Sussex Community Foundation. I have been amazed by the work which the Foundation has done and continues to do to support the small Sussex charities and community groups which so vitally need our help.

The vital role of professional advisers

I have also seen just how much our Professional Adviser network has done and continues to do to connect us with possible future fundholders and donors.

Around 30% of our fundholders have been introduced to us by lawyers, accountants, wealth managers and financial planners.

As Professional Advisers, you have the unique privilege to talk to your clients about possible charitable giving and to offer your expert advice on the best route for them to achieve their personal objectives as part of their tax and estate planning strategy.

For those clients who have a Sussex connection and are in the fortunate position to give something back to the community in which they grew up or have lived for many years, Sussex Community Foundation could well be the answer.

Of course, many of you already know this and are good enough to mention the Foundation and point some of your clients in our direction.

Connecting local generosity with local need

For those who don’t know much about us, the Foundation is the largest grant making charity dedicated to Sussex.

We have £26 million under management (in our endowment fund) and over 100 family and corporate funds. We can connect local generosity with genuine need. We give an average of £2.5 million each year to over 300 Sussex based organisations, most of which are small, low profile and which your clients would quite probably have never heard of.

These organisations deal with a huge range of issues, from mental and physical health to social isolation and homelessness, from housing and the environment to youth clubs, older people’s lunch clubs, clothing recycling and food banks, from art and wellbeing clubs, sports and dance groups for those with disabilities to advice centres for those in need of help with energy bills or debt and much, much more.

We can suggest countless charities and community groups which do amazing work in the community, often with very limited resources. We can almost certainly identify groups operating in areas of need that match the specific interests or location of your clients.

Experience, knowledge and a practical way to give

We have 20 years’ experience of working in Sussex and have made grants totalling £40 million during that time. Our staff have a deep knowledge of the needs of Sussex people and the organisations which work tirelessly to meet them.

Setting up a Donor Advised Fund with the Foundation keeps your clients and their families at the heart of the decision making process, whilst also representing a low maintenance, low cost and tax efficient means of giving and putting something back into the community.

You can do more than you might think!

We are massively grateful the many of you who already include the Foundation in your thinking for clients who express an interest in supporting local causes. We really do need you!

As I come to the end of my time with the Foundation, may I urge all of you to continue to mention us to any of your clients who are looking to support Sussex based charities or community groups. We might not be the right vehicle for all of them, but we can offer objective guidance and would love to help you to help your clients where we can.

Whatever the outcome, we always welcome the opportunity to explain what we can offer.

Finally, to the many of you I have been fortunate to meet over the last few years, my very best wishes to you and your firms for the future.

To all of you, please carry on thinking of Sussex Community Foundation. It is a brilliant charity run by an amazing team of people.

20 Years, 20 Voices: Tracey Payne

20 Years, 20 Voices celebrates the people, charities, donors and partners who have helped shape Sussex Community Foundation over the past two decades.

Tracey Payne is Managing Director of Herbert Scott, an independent financial planning firm based in Lewes and one of Sussex Community Foundation's long-standing professional adviser partners. She shares why conversations about charitable giving are becoming an increasingly important part of financial planning, and how working with the Foundation helps clients give locally with confidence.

Looking beyond wealth

For Tracey, financial planning is about much more than investments and pensions. It’s about helping people use their wealth to live the life they want and leave the legacy they choose.

"We genuinely want our clients to enjoy their money," she says. "We ask them why they've saved it, or why they've inherited it. What would make them happy? Some people want to do fantastic holidays, some want to pass it down to family, and for others, charitable giving becomes a really rewarding conversation."

Rather than treating philanthropy as a separate discussion, Herbert Scott sees it as part of holistic financial planning.

"We wouldn't dream of talking to clients without discussing pensions, investments or tax planning," Tracey explains. "So why wouldn't we also mention charitable giving?"

Helping clients give with confidence

Those conversations don't happen immediately. Instead, they develop once advisers understand a client's goals, values and long-term plans.

"It's usually when we've completed their onboarding process and come up with a strategy," says Tracey. "By then, we've learned what their goals and objectives are and whether charitable giving is something they want to explore."

For many clients, particularly those considering inheritance planning, giving offers the opportunity to decide where their wealth can make a difference.

"People often tell us they don't want to save every penny of tax, because the country needs it," she says. "But once they realise they can choose where some of that money goes instead, it opens up a really positive conversation about the causes they care about."

Why local giving matters

While clients support a wide range of causes, Tracey believes many are keen to make a difference close to home.

"I think people do want to see the benefit of giving in their own communities," she says.

For Herbert Scott, partnering with Sussex Community Foundation makes those conversations easier.

"It takes away at lot of the legwork," she explains. " The Foundation knows the local charity landscape, carries out all the due diligence and introduces clients to organisations they would probably never have discovered on their own. They’re also part of the UKCF network of 47 Community Foundation, which gives me even more confidence.”

That means advisers can confidently connect clients with trusted opportunities to support local communities.

Responding to changing financial planning

Tracey has also seen charitable giving become increasingly relevant as changes to inheritance tax rules bring more families into estate planning conversations.

“Some of our clients like feeling in control of where their money is going and this leads easily into conversations about charitable giving. For some clients, it's about leaving a legacy. For others, it's about making a difference during their lifetime and seeing the impact while they're still here."

A trusted partner for advisers

For Tracey, the Foundation has become a natural extension of the service Herbert Scott offers its clients.

"It's an additional service that helps us achieve what clients want," she says. "This is what Sussex Community Foundation does every day. Why should our clients know about every local charity when they don't need to? That's your expertise."

She also believes the partnership reflects positively on advisers.

"It shows we're putting our clients first, not simply focusing on the wealth we're managing," she says. "If I was talking to another adviser, I'd ask why they wouldn't work with Sussex Community Foundation. I can only see a positive response to it."

Find out more

Are you a professional advisor with a client who wants to give back to their community? Find the most efficient and effective route to achieving your client’s philanthropic goals with help from Sussex Community Foundation.

What modern philanthropy tells us – and why it matters here in Sussex

The latest research from The Beacon Collaborative and Barclays Private Bank makes for really interesting reading – shining some light (and some hard data!) on how people with significant resources are choosing to give, what motivates them, and what kind of support they need to maximise the impact of their giving.

Giving is growing - but donors want clarity and confidence

The research backs up what those of us in the philanthropy sector already know – there is a huge amount of generosity in our country, with 93% of the UK’s wealthiest individuals already giving to charity and contributing an estimated £11.4 billion in 2024. Yet the research also shows that many of these donors lack access to trusted, knowledgeable advice on how to give effectively and efficiently. For us at Sussex Community Foundation, this reinforces something we hear often: people want to help, but they don’t always know where their support will make the biggest difference.

Supporting philanthropy in Sussex

Here in Sussex, we’re proud to play a role as a local philanthropic partner. We help donors give with confidence that their resources are reaching grassroots organisations that are doing vital work – whether they are local food banks, mentoring for disadvantaged young people, singing groups which combat loneliness for older people, or providing vital support for disabled adults. We are in constant dialogue with people running local community groups, gathering insights to share with donors, so their giving is purposeful, not just well-intentioned. And we use the latest data, like our Sussex Uncovered reports, to highlight where the need is greatest.

The role of professional advisors

Recent research from CAF, The Philanthropy Advantage, also shows that up to two-thirds of high-net-worth (HNW) giving happens without financial advice, and only around a third of HNW donors have talked about the tax efficiency of their giving in the past two years. This suggests that a significant portion of charitable giving could be even more effective with the right guidance.

Advisors play a crucial role. 81% of wealthy donors believe professional advisors should proactively raise philanthropy as part of wider financial planning. It’s encouraging to see this recognised, because values-led giving isn’t separate from the decisions people make about their wealth – it’s often central to them.

That’s why the Foundation invests so much time in working with financial planners, solicitors and accountants across Sussex. We help advisors introduce their clients to meaningful, place-based giving opportunities, whether that’s through a legacy, a Donor Advised Fund, or long-term endowment giving. Over the last few years, we’ve seen this network grow significantly. Advisors tell us they value having a trusted, local partner they can turn to, and donors tell us they value the opportunity to invest in the place they call home.

A hopeful future for giving

The most hopeful message in the research is this: people want their giving to be more thoughtful, more strategic and more connected to their values. And they are looking for guidance. That presents a huge opportunity, not just for donors and advisors, but for communities across Sussex.

Connecting people and place

At the Foundation, we’ll continue to bring inspirational people together to create the change Sussex needs. If you’re an advisor who’d like to understand more about how we can support your conversations with clients, we’d love to speak with you. The more we connect people who want to help with the organisations delivering real change, the stronger our county becomes.

The gender dynamics of wealth transfer and philanthropy

Michael Lawrence, Managing Director at Global Wealthmap Ltd, discusses women’s increasingly important role in charitable giving.

We often hear about the inter-generational wealth transfer, where the baby boomer generation are going to be shifting trillions of pounds of wealth to the next generation. However, before this we will witness a significant transfer of wealth from men to women.

It is well established that women tend to outlive men, and whilst on average this may only be by a couple of years, in certain couples this could be a five- or ten-year period, partly due to the husband being on average a few years older as well. Add to this the increasing divorce rate in couples in their sixties.

This will have a number of ramifications for society, and especially so for professional services. At a recent event where I met with the FCA it was mentioned that upwards of 70% of women change their financial adviser when they become widows.

Helping manage their wealth

In our experience, women who inherit wealth will typically leave a traditional wealth manager for a planning led proposition, valuing in-depth conversations about goals, family priorities, passing wealth on to the next generation and charitable goals. If a firm has traditionally put too much emphasis on investment performance, graphs and asset allocation, and less on the qualitative side of the relationship, this can be a real issue.

We know that financial security and long-term financial stability are two big drivers for women inheriting money, and this may in turn lead to a desire to have a more cautious overall outlook. This is a generalisation of course, but we do see higher savings rates for women rather than men in our wider practice.

There is an increasing need for professional service and private client practices to take onboard demographic changes, because it is not just at the inheritance stage women become the main decision-makers. It is now increasingly common to see that the main income earner in the household is female. This follows on from a very long-term trend of academic outperformance of girls at school, young women at university and as a result women in the workplace. Some studies suggest that 60% of all wealth in the UK will be in the hands of women by 2030.

There are still big areas of inequality that need to be addressed, but increasingly we see couples coming to us where it is the woman who earns more and generates more wealth, and as a result takes a bigger interest in how money is managed for the longer-term.

This is in turn creates a number of opportunities in private client work. Of course, all types of advisers can be equally effective in advising all types of clients. But it is essential to focus on goals and objectives, and work through genuine lifestyle financial planning processes. This involves talking far more about the person and far less about the money.

Whilst the gender dynamics of wealth transfer introduces a number of new considerations, the old truths still remain. Clients value trusted advisers and you do that through being genuinely client centric, through transparency and great communication skills.

A positive effect of women making the financial decisions of a household, or where a widow suddenly becomes responsible for their finances, is a desire to talk about the importance of the wider family and the wider society. This introduces a great opportunity for private client advisers to address charitable and philanthropic goals as an active conversation rather than an afterthought.

A valuable opportunity for our society

We are in an exciting phase of change for our society, with increasing financial participation and autonomy for women we have a genuine chance of achieving a more equal society for everyone.

Michael Lawrence APFS
Chartered Financial Planner
Managing Director

Interested in finding out more on this topic? You can read a related article here.