How Financial Advisors Can Build Relationships With Heirs Before the Wealth Transfers

An estimated $124 trillion in wealth will change hands by 2048, according to Cerulli Associates, with roughly $105 trillion flowing directly to heirs. For wealth firms and financial advisors, that figure should spark both opportunity and urgency. Because while the assets transfer, the relationships very often don’t.

The firms that will win the next generation of high-net-worth clients aren’t simply the ones with the best portfolio performance or the sharpest fee structure. They’re the ones who figured out how to build trust before the estate settles, and how to keep it long after.

Why Relationships Don’t Automatically Transfer

More than 70% of heirs switch financial advisors after inheriting substantial wealth. That single statistic, cited in Cerruli Associates’ press release, reframes the entire conversation around client retention.

For years, the industry has treated the wealth transfer as a portfolio event. Assets move, accounts get retitled, paperwork gets filed. But what doesn’t automatically follow those assets is trust. Heirs who have had little or no relationship with their parents’ or spouse’s advisor arrive at the moment of inheritance as virtual strangers, and they make decisions accordingly.

What’s driving the relationship switch?

It’s rarely just about investment returns. Heirs reassess everything: 

• The fee structure
• The service model
• The digital experience 
• The firm’s stated values

They ask questions that the original client may never have thought to raise. They want to know whether this advisor actually understands them, not just their inherited portfolio.

Kaplan’s research frames this as a “Great Wealth Leak.” Long-standing relationships, built over decades with a primary client, can unravel in a matter of weeks when the heir has no prior personal connection to the advisor. The continuity of assets, in other words, does not equal the continuity of trust. For firms and the marketing partners who support them, that distinction reveals an opportunity to build stronger relationships between these audiences.

High-Net-Worth Client Retention Starts With Heirs, Spouses, and Adjacent Relationships

One of the most persistent blind spots in wealth management is treating the primary account holder as the only relationship that matters. Spouses, adult children, and younger heirs are often present at the edges of the client relationship. They are invited to the occasional meeting or mentioned in planning documents, but rarely developed as relationships in their own right.

That has to change, and the reason isn’t just ideological; it’s factually demographic.

Younger heirs, particularly Gen Z, are a fundamentally different audience with different expectations. About 77% of Gen Z surveyed by Qualtrics on behalf of Intuit Credit Karma actively seek financial advice and information online, many through social media platforms. Meanwhile, the World Economic Forum’s Global Retail Investor Survey found that U.S. financial literacy rates hover just below 50%. Younger heirs want information and guidance, and likely need it, but may not yet have the framework to evaluate what they’re being offered.

For advisors and wealth management firms, this creates a positioning opportunity. Next-gen clients need an education-led engagement model, not the assumption that they already understand the value of working with a trusted advisor.

Next Generation Wealth Management: Connecting With Adjacent Audiences

For younger heirs, firms that show up with digestible content, values-based conversations, and genuine curiosity about their goals will build the kind of credibility that outlasts any single inheritance event.

For spouses, the calculus is slightly different but equally urgent. Widows and widowers often inherit an advisor relationship they had little say in establishing.

Firms that treat the surviving spouse as a new client, take time to understand their individual goals, communication preferences, and level of financial involvement, are far more likely to retain that relationship through and beyond the transition.

What Wealth Management Marketing Looks Like in Practice

Reaching adjacent audiences is a coordinated strategy that combines in-person relationship building with sustained communication over time.

At the relationship level, financial firms can create intentional opportunities to engage the full client ecosystem. This can look like designing and executing thoughtful family-centered experiences like small-scale client appreciation events, multi-generational gatherings, or informal social settings where advisors are present as people first. These environments are deliberately absent of performance reviews or planning conversations. The objective is familiarity. When heirs and spouses associate an advisor with a positive, low-pressure interaction, the relationship begins to take shape long before any transfer of wealth occurs.

Equally important is what happens between those moments. Consistency and relevance in communication are what transform a single interaction into lasting trust. As a marketing partner to several financial services clients, we support this by developing segmented content strategies that reflect the distinct needs of adjacent audiences. For younger heirs, this often means concise, accessible educational content delivered through the channels they already use. The content typically connects financial decision-making to their broader life goals and values. For spouses, particularly those who may become primary decision-makers unexpectedly, it means clear, empathetic communication that prioritizes clarity, confidence, and personal relevance over technical depth.

This approach demands differentiated messaging, channel strategy, and tone. A 40-year-old inheritor and a long-standing primary client are not simply different demographics but fundamentally different audiences with different expectations. When executed effectively, these strategies create continuity that extends beyond any single client relationship.

Intergenerational Financial Planning & Establishing a Plan for Continuity, Not Just Assets

Firms and advisors establish a plan for the transfer of assets, but do they have a plan for the transfer of relationships? If they only plan for outreach after the transfer, the firm is reacting rather than leading.

A strong continuity framework works to build trust long before the transfer happens. It contains outreach, education, and relationship-building, so that when the transfer happens, the heir already knows the firm’s name, understands what it stands for, and sees the advisor as a trusted partner.

From a marketing standpoint, tracking how many heirs convert to active clients tells a firm exactly how well its continuity plan works in practice.

Engagement Strategies Before the Transfer Happens

The most important word in any wealth transfer retention strategy is “before.” Not before probate or before the estate settles, but before the transfer is even on the immediate horizon.

Nitrogen Wealth recommends that firms start multi-generational conversations early and introduce advisors to heirs while the primary client is still actively engaged, using that window to build genuine familiarity rather than transactional introductions. 

The specific tactics matter: 

• Digital-first communication for younger family members
• Bite-sized educational content that meets heirs where they are in their financial understanding
• Values-based conversations that connect planning to what the heir actually cares about

Family meetings, when done well, are one of the most effective tools available. It’s a genuine forum for heirs to ask questions, understand the family’s financial picture at an appropriate level, and begin to see the advisor as someone who is for them and not just for the estate.

For advisors wondering where to start

1. Identify your most at-risk client relationships (those where heirs are unknown to the advisory team)
2. Prioritize outreach to those families
3. Build a transition introduction process that isn’t dependent on a loss event to trigger it

Build Your Next Client Base With a Partner Who Understands Wealth Transfer

At Frankel, we know how to reach those heirs, spouses, and next-gen clients before the moment of transfer arrives. That means building the messaging and positioning that resonates with a 40-year-old inheritor differently than it does with their parents, deploying targeted digital advertising to reach them where they actually spend time, and creating the landing pages, email campaigns, and content that move a skeptical heir from unfamiliar to engaged. 

Multi-generational relationship-building requires multi-generational marketing, and we’ve done both. Let’s talk about how we can strategize for the wealth transfer underway.