Retaining Inheritors as Clients Beyond the Great Wealth Transfer

As the first of 1.1 billion Baby Boomers expect to turn 80 this year, $124 trillion in assets are expected to change hands by 2048. With the largest wealth transfer in history already underway, financial guidance professionals are already challenged to retain inherited assets, according to research from Protective Life Insurance Co., a U.S. subsidiary of Daiichi Life Group Inc.

Protective Life’s recent white paper, “The Two Months That Matter: Financial Professional Strategies for the Great Wealth Transfer,” was based on a survey of 1,008 future inheritors aged 30 through 60 who expect to receive an inheritance of at least $500,000 in the next decade. Most future inheritors (77%) said they already work with a financial professional, but only 6% said they plan on using the same adviser as their bequestor.

In addition to the survey, Protective Life conducted interviews with 10 financial professionals, each with at least $50 million in assets under management and each providing wealth transfer planning for at least half of their clients. Protective Life also sponsored separate 2025 surveys by Greenwald Research of 1,018 individuals aged 60 and older with at least $500,000 in household investable assets and of 500 financial professionals with at least $50 million in assets under management and at least half of their income generated from retail clients.

Nearly all future inheritors (93%) said they understood what will be included in their inheritance, but they still had not completed all wealth transfer planning measures. Forty-nine percent of surveyed inheritors also worried an inheritance could cause family conflict.

Sixty percent of future inheritors said they expect to receive at least part of their inheritance during the bequestor’s lifetime, while only 20% of future bequestors had made or planned to make lifetime gifts to reduce the size of their taxable estate.

“The industry often focuses on where assets will go, but these findings suggest another important question: Who will families turn to when those assets move?” said Aaron Seurkamp, president of Protective Life’s protection and retirement division, in a statement. “Many future inheritors already have financial professionals they trust. That makes it important [for advisers] to engage spouses, partners and adult children before a life event or transfer occurs. The financial professionals who build those relationships early may be better positioned to support families through a transition.”

Drawing from Protective’s surveying and interviews, the white paper outlined four actions financial professionals can take during often overlooked critical points of a client’s wealth transfer to strengthen multi-generational relationships:

• Engage both members of a couple. If one spouse or partner is more involved with a financial professional, the survivor could easily switch advisers due to lack of context and confidence;
• Make transfer readiness visible. According to the research, advisers should provide transfer-readiness materials such as documents that confirm wills and beneficiaries and highlight any unresolved matters to reduce future friction;
• Normalize contacting heirs. Familiarity with a client’s heirs before any big events occur can reduce anxiety later and keep the financial professional central to the wealth transfer, and;
• Engineer continuity before assets move. If an inheritor already works with a financial professional, the bequestor’s financial professional can still schedule low-pressure, annual family touchpoints focused on roles, instead of balances.