RIAs know they face a serious problem over the coming decades: High-net-worth (HNW) and ultra-high-net-worth (UHNW) clients will pass on an unprecedented volume of assets to their children, but most firms struggle to appeal to that younger generation or build loyalty with those heirs.
The numbers are stark. Cerulli found that only 27% of heirs who expect an inheritance plan to keep their benefactor’s advisor, and just 20% of heirs who have already inherited kept that advisor. Capgemini found that 81% of inheritors plan to switch firms within one to two years of inheriting. And though Orion’s investor survey puts the overall risk lower, it found that the likelihood of switching rises with the size of the inheritance: 18% for inheritances of $500,000 to $1 million, and 24% above $1 million.
So how can firms stop the Great Wealth Transfer from turning into the Great Client Exodus?
There is no cure-all for these problems. Firms must simultaneously manage an aging advisor population, changing client demographics, and trillions of dollars in assets being transferred over the coming years. Yet most firms still overlook their best bet for winning over HNW heirs: marketing.
The Great Wealth Transfer is the expected movement of trillions of dollars from Baby Boomers to younger generations over the next 2048. For financial advisors, it creates a major retention risk: heirs who have no relationship with the existing advisor may move inherited assets to another firm.
RIAs can reduce that risk by engaging clients’ children and other beneficiaries before the transfer through family meetings, targeted education, and direct relationship-building. However, to achieve that goal, they’ll need to understand why so many heirs plan to switch advisors in the first place.
RIAs can only keep these relationships through the Great Wealth Transfer if they understand what drives HNW heirs to switch advisors. Our work with RIAs, and the research below, points to three factors behind most heir attrition:
Plenty of wealthy heirs are skeptical of financial advisors in general. They’ve grown up with access to far more information about investments and financial markets than previous generations; the prospect of paying 1% of their managed assets every year is a much harder sell.
That puts pressure on RIAs to offer value these skeptical heirs can’t get elsewhere. While robo-advisors, chatbots, and fee-free brokers typically attract retail investors, they still change the industry landscape in ways that influence HNW and UHNW investors, especially those who are digital-native.
The current debate over how AI affects advisors’ value illustrates that shift: when market knowledge and access are widespread, and many technical planning services are significantly cheaper, the role of wealth managers shifts to relationship-building and trust.
But for many RIAs, that’s exactly where the Great Wealth Transfer leaves them most vulnerable.
Many RIAs have built advisory relationships that appear to exclude children and other heirs. Although 91% of HNW advisors involve their clients’ spouses in financial conversations, just 43% involve their clients’ children.
That can easily create friction: advisors are guiding decisions that directly affect these heirs’ futures, but rarely consult or include them. Heirs might plausibly want to switch advisors simply to exert control; carrying on with the same firm might feel like remaining in their parents’ shadows.
The desire to get out of that shadow often leads heirs to emphasize different factors when managing money.
Younger investors and HNW heirs are far more likely to:
That leaves RIAs with a significant challenge: prove that you can meet heirs’ needs and align with their values before they inherit their parents’ fortunes.
The Great Wealth Transfer is often a strategic blind spot: rather than making intentional efforts to build relationships with their clients’ children, firms hope to offset AUM losses through acquisitions, hiring, and market performance. But none of these on their own will keep firms secure over the coming decades.
That’s why our team developed a four-step process to help you systematically identify and address weaknesses in your relationships that put your future at risk:
Most firms have an ambient sense that the Great Wealth Transfer puts their AUM under threat. Few have mapped out exactly which relationships are most fragile or where their biggest losses could occur.
Marketing can’t address problems you haven’t properly diagnosed. Without a clear, risk-ranked list of relationships that are at risk, you can’t develop effective messages, allocate budget intelligently, or measure the impact of your spend.
Marketing can nurture your relationships with your clients’ children, but it shouldn’t build them from scratch. This is where digital marketing and traditional business development come together: establishing the initial contact and increasing the number of touch points where heirs will engage with your firm.
Once you’ve established the connection, carry that relationship forward. But standard RIA marketing rarely speaks to the interests and concerns of younger clients.Values-aligned investing, alternatives, and digital-first service tend to matter more to heirs than to their parents.
However, the Great Wealth Transfer isn’t the only challenge RIAs face. Switching your marketing wholesale to focus on younger investors risks alienating existing clients and missing out on lucrative client pools. Instead, you need to treat next-generation investors as one audience segment and adapt your strategy accordingly.
The Great Wealth Transfer threatens advisory relationships, but many of your centers of influence (COIs) will thrive. Estate planning attorneys and CPAs are essential to manage the transition of assets; they are often involved in the transfer process several years before it actually occurs.
That makes COIs one of your most powerful levers when building trust with the next generation. A referral from a trusted attorney or accountant reaches the heir with credibility marketing alone can't manufacture. However, marketing can help build those relationships and make it easier for COIs to introduce you to financial conversations.
The Great Wealth Transfer leaves many firms feeling out of control, but our system offers a way to build and maintain strong relationships with your clients’ children. Most firms won’t struggle to know what to do. They’ll struggle to find the resources and skills to do it consistently.
ProperExpression can take that load off your shoulders. We specialize in wealth management marketing, so our team can help you connect with HNW and UHNW heirs across the digital channels they use and become a trusted partner for them when they finally inherit.
Engage heirs before the transfer, not after it. Bring them into family meetings and annual reviews with the client's consent, offer education pitched to their life stage (first home, equity comp, starting a family), and give them a direct point of contact at the firm, ideally a younger advisor.
Cerulli projects roughly $124 trillion will change hands in the US through 2048, with more than half coming from high-net-worth and ultra-high-net-worth households, which make up about 2% of all households. For RIAs, that concentration is the point: most of the assets in motion sit with the exact clients whose heirs are most likely to leave.
Older HNW clients generally respond to track record, in-person relationships, and wealth preservation. Their heirs weigh values alignment, fee transparency, and an advisor's online presence, and they want more alternatives like real estate, private markets, and crypto.
Capgemini found 61% of millennial and Gen Z HNWIs are willing to take on more risk for higher-growth assets and niche products such as cryptocurrency. The channels differ too: heirs look for financial guidance on YouTube and social media, not print. Treat next-gen as a distinct segment layered onto your HNW marketing, not a replacement for it.
They are usually in the room first. Estate attorneys and CPAs get involved years before a transfer completes, through estate plans, business sales, and tax events, so they reach heirs early with credibility no marketing can buy.
Build direct referral relationships with the attorneys and CPAs your clients already use, give them a specific reason to introduce you to the next generation, and make the referrals reciprocal.