Inter-generational Wealth Transfer Woes

A hot topic in the financial advisory space—or maybe more accurately a sore subject—is the high rate of attrition of heirs when clients die and leave their managed wealth to beneficiaries. We have discussed this topic before, noting that a host of factors are at play including critical features like communication with the family-economic unit, relationship building, and personal differences resulting from a generational divide between the heirs and the advisor. But at the end …
Recently, The Wall Street Journal reported that J.P. Morgan Chase & Co.’s private banking group went through another layoff as it shifted its business strategy and increased its minimum investible assets from $5 million to $10 million. The rationale, as explained in the article, is that wealthy clients require much more attention, generate more fees, and have less risk than less lower income, middle class clients. The article continues:  Wealthy clients also typically generate …
Using an arbitrary minimum asset level for clients unduly limits the market for financial services providers to those who have already “made it,” and ignores the substantial number of prospects that are ultimately headed for financial success. For advisors, using minimums often means excluding the coveted Millennial group because they do not meet asset requirements . . . yet. So why does the industry continue to focus on current asset levels? Defining target markets by …
How will you spend the day after Thanksgiving? Here’s some research that might influence your decision. In our 2015 survey of affluent Americans–a group that represents the top wealth holders in the United States–we asked how many times they participated in in-store Black Friday shopping in the past five years. Only 2% said they had participated each of the past five years, 14% said they had participated once or twice, and 3% said they had …
Distrust and caution are the parents of security. – Benjamin Franklin Data Points measures skepticism in relationship to one’s overall Wealth Potential™: it is positively related to net worth regardless of age, income and percentage of wealth inherited. So, those who have the greatest potential for accumulating wealth are also those who will most likely question everything with respect to how they (or you) manage and invest money. In one of our latest studies, within a sample of …

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