How to Retain Generational Relationships with your Clients

The coming great wealth transfer of $30 trillion in assets from baby boomers to their heirs is creating challenges for clients and advisors alike.

TAG Advisory Services's Insight

As the Baby Boomer generation continues to retire and pass their wealth down to their next of kin, the financial advisory industry must also prepare for a major transition of its own.

Since advisors often focus their attention on the main breadwinner in a family, when that key member passes away, the relationship with the rest of the family tends to fall apart as well. In fact, studies have shown that over 66% of children fire their parents’ financial advisors after inheriting wealth.

Ultimately, all successful client-advisor relationships are built on trust, so when advisors neglect to build a rapport with other members of their client’s family, it becomes incredibly difficult to retain that family’s business when the original client passes on. A few ways to accomplish this include involving the family’s children into financial discussions from an early age or encouraging their clients to bring their children into meetings with advisors when the time is right. An MFS client survey showed that 79% of respondents said such discussions were “extremely/very helpful” in retaining their parents' advisors.

By initiating these types of discussions from an early age, advisors stand a better chance of reducing the likelihood of client defection when the wealth transfer finally occurs, thereby maintaining generational client bonds.