Insurance advisors and financial professionals have been preparing for The Great Wealth Transfer when Baby Boomers pass on their estimated $68 trillion in assets to their Gen X and Millennial children. This gradual event has quickly escalated due to the coronavirus pandemic and corresponding lockdown. If your clients weren’t already thinking about what this means for them, there is no more time to wait.
Transferring wealth is extremely important for families, and it is best to prepare with help from an advisor. While there are planning strategies that the insurance or financial advisor needs to carry out, the crucial part is ensuring that the transfer happens. A good insurtech solution can eliminate any question or confusion when the time comes.
Provide Value as an Advisor
To fully close the last mile in the insurance lifecycle, advisors need to be involved in passing on assets to beneficiaries. According to an RBC Wealth Transfer Study, only 35% of inheritors are made aware by their benefactors before receiving any assets. This statistic indicates that those beneficiaries have little to no idea what to do with their new possessions when the time comes. Even if a beneficiary was made aware of their situation, their financial plan is likely to change exponentially with new wealth acquisition.
Combine a blind acquisition or a change in financial planning with the apparent misunderstanding regarding inheritors’ expectation of the wealth transfer process and how it works, and there is a perfect recipe for chaos. This lack of understanding highlights the need for more communication between the advisor, client, and beneficiaries as well as training on financial literacy and preparedness. Similarly, the study found a positive relationship between preparedness and confidence in wealth preservation.
By offering clients and their benefactors the resources to feel prepared, the advisor can be confident that the wealth transfer will be successful. Advisors need to take advantage of this opportunity and help clients and their beneficiaries understand the wealth transfer process and be there to tie up all loose ends after the client passes. Offering knowledge and advice to all members involved can evoke stronger relationships between the advisor all other parties.
As these younger generations begin to inherit wealth, advisors who develop relationships early on will prosper from the opportunity. It is estimated that Gen Xers will receive a net worth of $37 trillion by 2030—that is, if all wealth is distributed properly.
Don’t Leave Anything to Chance
Over 60% of family fortunes are dissipated due to lack of communication and trust, and these differences often surface due to lack of synergy between different age groups. According to Rod Zeeb, CEO and co-founder of the Appleton, one of the biggest causes of an unsuccessful wealth transfer is lack of preparation or knowledge. Zeeb also noted that an advisor who helps to plan a wealth transfer but does not see it through could end up as a defendant in a lawsuit when everything goes awry. In a case as serious as this, there is no room for error. Advisors need an insurtech solution to store the information securely and release that information to the right people at the appropriate times.
Link by LegacyShield is a secure communication platform for advisors and their clients to share policy and financial information online. Clients can share any information with their beneficiaries immediately or at predetermined life events to ensure that each individual receives information when it’s time. Advisors who help plan a wealth transfer and involve the beneficiaries through a system like Link will be much more likely to keep the assets under management. To learn more about Link, visit our website: www.legacyshield.com.
