Managing Wealth Transfers Across Generations

Financial advisors today face a significant challenge: helping their clients move from avoidance to activity in planning for the transfer of their wealth—and retaining the assets when that wealth changes hands.

Our research uncovers why clients are hesitant to start planning to transfer wealth, whether that be to a spouse or to the next generation, and what advisors can do to engage their clients in planning for the future.

Many clients put off thinking about wealth transfer plans until an emergency forces the conversation. But by then, it may be too late. Planning early allows time for:

• Having a clear understanding of client objectives and family values to personalize the plan
• Building a relationship with the rest of the family by including them up front
• Developing financial literacy in the next generations, to ensure that the family is prepared to receive the inheritance.

This is a business-building opportunity. A conversation about planning for a family’s future can be a natural pathway to engage the next generation.

Advisors can help their clients begin to prepare for wealth transfer with these easy steps:

•  Encourage clients to discuss money with their family and foster effective money communication skills.
• Create a family values roadmap to define the family’s core values—and how family wealth factors into those values.
  
• Conduct a Financial Literacy Assessment to help determine the baseline of financial understanding that each family member possesses.
• Provide additional resources to help clients build their family’s collective financial knowledge – from raising financially intelligent children, to saving for college, to retirement and estate planning.