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The Great Wealth Transfer Is Really a Trust Transfer

While wealth can transfer overnight, trust cannot. Financial firms cannot assume relationships built with one generation will automatically survive into the next, and earning the next generation’s trust will require a more personal, holistic approach to financial advice.

The Great Wealth Transfer, the historic movement of assets from older Americans to their heirs, is often measured in dollars. An estimated $124 trillion is expected to change hands through 2048, making it the largest intergenerational transfer of wealth in history. The numbers are staggering, but they obscure the industry’s bigger challenge. For financial firms, the defining question isn’t how much wealth will transfer. It’s whether trust will transfer with it.

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This distinction is significant because while wealth can change hands overnight, relationships rarely do. When assets move to a new generation with different life experiences and expectations, decades of loyalty can disappear surprisingly quickly. As Millennials and Gen Z become primary financial decision-makers, they’re bringing different expectations to financial relationships. They want expertise and sound guidance, but they also want advisors and firms that understand their goals and priorities as individuals.

Inherited assets do not guarantee inherited relationships

For decades, the financial services industry could expect relationships built over generations to continue as wealth transferred from one........

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