Paul M. Capsersen, MS, CFP®, AEP®, is the program director for the Chartered Advisor in Philanthropy® (CAP®) Program at The American College of Financial Services and the managing director of the American College Center for Philanthropy and Social Impact. He brings complex financial thinking to the charitable planning field, with 27 years of experience in financial, estate, and charitable planning.

From 2012 to 2022, Caspersen served as Assistant Vice President and Senior Philanthropic Advisor at the University of Florida, where his gift planning team closed $1.25 billion (out of the campaign’s $4 billion total) in deferred gifts and outright gifts of complex assets. Prior to his position at the University of Florida, Caspersen led the gift planning program at Iowa State University. In the decade before gift planning, he gained his first experience in financial services.

Caspersen is also the founder of Planned Giving Interactive (PGI), a charitable planning software and consulting organization. PGI provides charities with practical tools to research complex gifts and an industry-leading, extensive suite of document drafting software and consulting to automate donor compliance-related documents. He is a past national board member of the National Association of Estate Planners & Councils (NAEPC), which has more than 270 member estate planning councils and provides services to their estimated 30,000 individual members.

In 2011, Caspersen published the book “Direction Memo: How to Write a Letter of Instructions for Your Estate Plan,” and has regularly published in peer-reviewed journals such as Trusts & Estates. He graduated with honors from the College for Financial Planning in Denver with a master’s degree in financial planning and taxation and holds an undergraduate degree from the University of Northern Iowa in business communications. When not working, he enjoys marathon training, cooking, golfing, and spending time with his wife, Dana, and two sons, Gabe and Garner.