Ask a wealthy family how they plan to divide an estate, and the conversation used to stop at percentages: how much to each child, how much to the grandchildren, how much to charity if anything is left over. That conversation has changed. For Justin Nelson, Managing Director and Head of the Asset Management and Financial Principals Coverage Team for J.P. Morgan Private Bank in Connecticut, the harder question clients bring to the table now is what their wealth is meant to accomplish once it’s gone.
“For many families, charitable giving is really an extension of their estate plan,” Nelson said. “The question isn’t just, ‘How much do I want to leave to my children?’ It’s also, ‘What do I want my wealth to accomplish, and what values do I want to pass along with it?’”
The timing behind that question is hard to ignore. Cerulli Associates estimates that $124 trillion will pass between generations of American households through 2048, and roughly $18 trillion of that sum is projected to go to charity rather than heirs. Nelson joined J.P. Morgan in 1998 and has spent nearly three decades helping families move money like that. He said the two decisions, giving and inheriting, rarely stay separate anymore.
Why Estate Plans Now Make Room for Philanthropy
Families who have already provided for children and grandchildren often reach a point where an extra few million dollars would not change how their kids actually live, Nelson said. That realization often opens space for something more deliberate.
“The best estate plans aren’t just about transferring assets efficiently,” he said. “They reflect the priorities of the family.”
For many of the households Nelson works with, giving also becomes a bridge between generations. Sitting down to decide which causes matter, and why, gives parents and children a reason to talk about values and responsibility that a spreadsheet never forces on its own.
Foundations, Donor-Advised Funds and a Question of Fit
Once a family decides philanthropy belongs in the plan, the next decision is structural: a private foundation or a donor-advised fund. Nelson said the two vehicles serve different instincts. A foundation suits a family that wants control, governance, and a lasting institution built around its own board. A donor-advised fund suits a family that wants to give without running one.
“I sometimes describe a donor-advised fund as giving you much of the experience of having a charitable foundation without all of the administration,” Nelson said. Donors contribute assets, take the deduction when eligible, then recommend grants over time while a sponsoring organization handles the administration.
Donor-advised funds have grown fast largely because they are simple. National Philanthropic Trust reported that grants recommended from its donor-advised funds climbed 20% in fiscal year 2025, reaching more than $6.6 billion distributed to over 48,000 charities. “A foundation makes sense when the infrastructure itself is part of what you want to build,” Nelson said. “A donor-advised fund makes sense when you primarily want an efficient vehicle for giving.”
The Most Tax-Efficient Gift Isn’t Always Cash
Nelson said the biggest missed opportunity he sees is treating charitable giving as a year-end afterthought instead of something planned alongside the rest of a client’s finances.
“The most tax-efficient charitable gift is often not a check,” he said. Donating appreciated securities directly to charity, rather than selling them and writing a check for the proceeds, lets a donor support a cause while avoiding the capital gains tax a sale would otherwise trigger. That math has reshaped how contributions arrive: Fidelity Charitable’s 2025 Giving Report found that 67% of contributions to its donor-advised funds in 2024 came in non-cash form, with publicly traded securities alone accounting for 57%.
In Nelson’s experience, large liquidity events tend to be the moment this planning pays off most. A business sale, a concentrated stock position, an unusually high-income year: each can create a window to accelerate giving when the tax benefit is highest, without an obligation to hand every dollar to a charity right away.
Coordinating that timing with the rest of an estate plan, Nelson said, is where the real value shows up. “You don’t want the investment strategy, the tax strategy, the estate plan and the charitable plan operating independently,” he said. “The real opportunity comes when you design and integrate them together.”
Nelson has applied that thinking to his own giving. He has served on the board of the Breast Cancer Alliance since 2016, an example of a professional connection that turned into a personal commitment. He tells clients the right structure still depends on their own tax and estate circumstances. Nothing gets recommended until he’s checked it against a family’s own tax and legal advisors. For Justin Nelson, the calculus stays the same whether a gift comes from a modest account or a nine-figure portfolio: design it on purpose, and design it together.
