Advisers need to be more intentional in having intergenerational wealth transfer conversations with all the generations involved.
This was one of the challenges thrown down to delegates attending the Technical Connection: Enhancing your Expertise conference in London today (June 4).
Opening the conference with a session on how to deliver intergenerational advice, director Tony Wickenden said the importance of delivering advice could not be "overstated".
He said: "It has been talked about a lot - the importance of our ability to deliver advice that leaves your clients better off with you than without you.
"Intergenerational advice is just doing this for more people."
Wickenden highlighted research carried out by many organisations over the past few years that outlined the patterns and trends in terms of intergenerational wealth transfers and giving.
But he said while this was probably "already known" by many people in the room, he also questioned whether advisers, in general, really got to grips with conversations about the great wealth transfer with all the parties involved.
He said: "We need to be intentional about what we are doing in our businesses to enable these conversations with the younger generation.
"Just because their grandparents or parents used us, it does not mean they will automatically use us. So it is important to get those conversations started."
He pointed to research from Technical Connection which showed an overwhelming majority of advisers (90 per cent) stated they advise on intergenerational transfers, but followed this with figures from advised customers who said they had not had those conversations.
Only 34.80 per cent had even met their main clients' children, while only 30.3 per cent had discussed the transfer of wealth with their clients' children.
Wickenden added: "We advertise the fact that we do intergenerational planning but far fewer of the advisers we talked to actually had regular conversations about it.
"Indeed, far fewer had planned how they would have these conversations with the next generation, or even maybe worse the spouse or partner."
He also warned delegates: "You risk losing influence over that money. To have those conversations means retaining influence over that money, reducing anxiety for clients, and builds value in the business."
Wickenden added: "It is Important to get to know the client and coach them to make the smart decisions. The next generations are going to receive a lot of money and it is important that we are part of that money transfer."
simoney.kyriakou@ft.com
