Wealth Transfer, Part 3: Get to Know the Heirs Now

The time to build a relationship with your clients’ kids isn’t after they inherit. It’s before.

This is the final part of a three-part series on wealth transfer as a niche. Part 1 covered why this niche is worth exploring. Part 2 covered helping your clients organize what they’re leaving behind. This week: the kids.

Here’s what happens when an advisor doesn’t build a relationship with the heirs while the client is still living. The client passes away, the kids take over the estate, they have no relationship with you, and they move the money. It happens constantly, and it’s preventable.

I know this because I’ve been on the other side. As the successor trustee of a trust and the executor of that same estate, I walked into a $4 million estate spread across at least half a dozen different institutions. The attorney and CPA were not helpful beyond tax and legal questions. There was no one person who could help me see the full picture and coordinate all of it. If there had been an advisor who had already been the point person for this estate, consolidated everything into fewer accounts, knew me and other heirs, and already understood what was coming, it would have changed everything.

That’s the opportunity. When you’re helping your clients organize their wealth transfer, bring the kids into the conversation, especially those who will be managing the estate, but also anyone who stands to inherit. Introduce yourself, help them understand what’s in place, and make sure they know who to call when the time comes.

This does two things. First, your client gets peace of mind knowing their family won’t be scrambling. Second, you build a relationship with the next generation while there’s no pressure, no grief, and no urgency. By the time they inherit, you’re the advisor who already helped their family, and that’s a relationship no other advisor can compete with.

The takeaway: Don’t wait until your client passes to meet their heirs. By then, the assets are already walking out the door. Start now, while you have the introduction that no other advisor can get.