While it’s important to discuss what a parent wants for their children, advisors should build a direct, confidential relationship with the adult child.davidf/iStockPhoto / Getty Images
Sometimes, even the strongest client relationships don’t survive beyond the client’s death.
A U.S. study conducted in 2018 showed that roughly 70 per cent of women change advisors within a year of a spouse’s death.
Furthermore, a 2024 global survey by Natixis Investment Managers found that half of adult children leave their parents’ advisor after inheriting wealth (the percentage of widowed spouses leaving advisors was lower in this survey, at 28 per cent).
With the average age of widowhood in Canada just 56, the intergenerational handoff often begins earlier than advisors expect.
That’s why a proactive approach to multi-generational planning is essential to securing relationships, all while meeting growing expectations that advisors will prepare their clients’ children for financial success.
Engage at key life moments
Parents often worry whether adult children can stand on their own financially once they leave home. Advisors can help by connecting advice to the following key life transitions:
- Post-secondary planning: Use the decision to attend university or college as an opportunity to discuss budgeting, the cost of attendance and how a registered education savings plan (RESP) works.
- First job: Walk through compensation packages, group benefits, the differences between different registered and non-registered accounts, and help them set up an automatic savings plan to build good habits early.
- First home: Explain the trade-offs of renting versus buying, pre-approval steps, mortgage options, and financial considerations for cohabitation or marriage.
- Starting a family: Revisit cash-flow planning, emergency funding, insurance needs, wills and powers of attorney, and RESPs for their own children.
It can also be valuable to host annual intergenerational client events in relaxed settings. Family-friendly gatherings, such as a visit to the zoo or a summer picnic with a photographer offering complimentary family portraits, create low-pressure touchpoints. They make it easier to meet clients’ children while normalizing money conversations across the family.
Fostering financial confidence
While it’s important to discuss what a parent wants for their children, advisors should build a direct, confidential relationship with the adult child.
Younger clients are digitally savvy, absorb information quickly and value personalized, actionable advice. Rather than relying on generic presentations, advisors can tailor educational material to real-life decisions: renting versus buying, balancing debt repayment with investing, or understanding how market volatility affects long-term goals.
Demonstrating concepts such as the power of compounding using real dollar amounts based on the child’s income and savings rate is more impactful than abstract examples.
Having “skin in the game” also accelerates learning. Encouraging even modest, real contributions rather than paper portfolios fosters greater engagement.
Over time, advisors can connect market movements to portfolio outcomes and introduce more advanced topics such as asset allocation, the psychology of investing and risk management.
Let experience do some of the teaching
Despite parents’ best intentions, some lessons only stick when learned the hard way. Advisors can help parents offer support without removing accountability when adult children make financial missteps.
For example, consider a child who accumulated credit card debt through reckless spending and asks for a bailout. Rather than an unconditional rescue, advisors can suggest a structured plan through which the parents cover a portion of the balance if the child reduces discretionary spending, builds a basic budget, and takes on a part-time job.
The goal isn’t to punish, but to foster good financial habits. These moments are powerful opportunities to shift a child’s mindset about needs versus wants, opportunity cost, and the importance of long-term financial planning.
Intergenerational wealth planning in practice
Advisors should approach intergenerational planning with the same discipline and focus they bring to every other part of their practice.
- Define the “why”: Craft a clear statement about why your team serves the whole family and how it supports client outcomes and continuity.
- Map the journey: Create touchpoints for each life stage, with educational materials and checklists tailored to each.
- Assign ownership: Decide who invites family members, leads educational discussions, and follows up and records outcomes.
- Improve capabilities: Consider obtaining an insurance licence, expanding tax knowledge, and developing facilitation skills for family meetings.
- Measure and iterate: Track metrics such as next-generation contacts, meeting frequency and client feedback.
Advisors who take time during onboarding to ask about their clients’ children and how they can help will demonstrate their commitment to intergenerational planning and establish trust across generations.
As one of the greatest wealth transfers in history unfolds, intergenerational planning can strengthen client outcomes and maintain relationships for decades to come.
Susan O’Brien is senior wealth advisor with the Susan O’Brien Wealth Advisory Group at Richardson Wealth Ltd. in Calgary.