Ep 461: Helping Clients Live Intentionally And Generously With Charitable Giving Events (That Also Drive New Growth) with Zac Larson

Financial Advisor Success

Michael Kitces

News, Business, Entrepreneurship, Business News

4.8 • 696 Ratings

🗓️ 28 October 2025

⏱️ 90 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Crafting a charitable giving strategy isn't just about tax efficiency—it's a way for clients to define the deeper purpose of their wealth. When advisors center generosity in both planning conversations and firm culture, they can strengthen relationships and attract values-driven clients. This episode explores how integrating charitable intent into financial planning not only expands impact, but also fuels practice growth.

Zac Larson is the co-founder of IntentGen Financial Partners, a hybrid advisory firm based in Naperville, Illinois, managing $550 million in AUM for 895 households. Listen in as Zac shares how he positions clients as "engaged partners" by focusing not just on net worth but on "net impact," as well as how he uses working conversations about priorities and passions to uncover giving opportunities. You'll learn how IntentGen tracks and publishes the charitable donations it facilitates to build community trust, why the firm built its pod structure to expand advisor capacity, and how its flat-fee-plus-AUM model supports a wide range of engaged clients. Zac also reflects on hosting community fundraising events, offering personal touches like client phone calls, and why building around generosity has been key to attracting aligned clients and creating lasting impact.

For show notes and more visit: https://www.kitces.com/461

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to the Financial Advisor Success Podcast, where you go behind the scenes with
0:07.1	financial planner, speaker, and consultant Michael Kitsis to hear stories of how leading
0:12.4	financial advisors navigated the inevitable challenges that arise on the path to success
0:17.4	and get insight from leading industry consultants about how to break through to the next
0:22.2	level in your advisory business. And now here's your host, Michael Kitsas. Welcome, everyone.
0:29.0	Welcome to the 461st episode of the Financial Advisor Success Podcast. My guest on today's podcast is
0:35.3	Zach Larson. Zach is the co-founder of Intentioned Financial Partners, a hybrid advisory firm based in Naperville, Illinois,
0:41.7	that oversees $550 million in assets under management for 895 client households.
0:48.2	What's unique about Zach, though, is how he has found success in part by placing charitable giving at the center of his firm's identity,
0:54.9	not only in exploring planning tactics that can help clients give more efficiently, but also in
0:59.1	seeking to work with employees and clients who want to live generously. In this episode, we talk in
1:04.5	depth about how Zach refers to his clients as engaged partners who want to explore the purpose of
1:09.6	their money and go beyond discussions of
1:11.4	net worth to talk about their net impact, how Zach devotes time in client meetings to being
1:16.5	curious about the people and places that are most important to his clients, which can help
1:20.6	identify their priorities and eventual giving opportunities down the line, and how Zach's firm
1:25.2	tracks and publishes the charitable donations they facilitate,
1:28.4	raising its profile in its local community and attracting potential clients who might be interested
1:32.3	in expanding their own giving.
1:34.3	We also talk about how Zach's firm emphasizes its five core values, live intentionally, find
1:40.0	solutions, be real, grow purposefully, and live generously, applying them both internally when
1:45.2	hiring and evaluating team members and when engaging with potential external partners, how
	...

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