Position Yourself for the Generational Wealth Transfer
I must sound like a broken record, and now, I am dating myself …. “broken record?”…Who says that anymore? But I think this is so important to you and your practice that I am going to say/write about this yet again……Positioning yourself and your advisory business for your clients’ and others inevitable generational wealth transfer is paramount to your long-term success.*
On July 2, 2019 Erin Fossett wrote an article that was sponsored by Thrivent Mutual Funds and published on September 25th on WealthManagement.com (www.WealthManagement.com) entitled 7 steps to building long-term value into your investment practice. The article was introduced on WealthManagement.com and links to the article Tapping the Family Tree: Are You Ready for the Great American Wealth Transfer?
The WealthManagement.com article introduces the Great Wealth Transfer by stating that:
The 7-step guidance that Erin Fossett wrote about is sound, but it does NOT address one of the fundamental issues that I keep emphasizing and repeating. Namely, that risk management (mortality risk, longevity risk and morbidity risk) MUST be part of the generational wealth transfer conversation and incorporated into the guidance provided to your clients for the following reasons:
- It addresses your fiduciary obligation to your clients. Legal-dictionary.com defines a fiduciary as “an individual in who another has placed the utmost trust and confidence to manage and protect property or money. The relationship wherein one person has an obligation to act for another’s benefit”.
- It not only preserves and protects the wealth of the client, but it does the same for the ultimate beneficiaries of the client’s estate – their children, grandchildren and others, such as charities, to whom you also owe a fiduciary duty.
- It helps you build a relationship with the next generation – a reason that is also emphasized in the article.
- Finally, all three reasons above lead to the protection of the value of your business as risk-based products either preserve the value of your book or replenish assets that have been spent down as part of a client’s retirement planning or end of life needs.
AIG (now Corebridge Financial) released this a video which features Jack Reutermann, Jr., CLU, CFP. Mr. Reutermann is the Founder and CEO of Research Financial Strategies in Rockville, MD and is a 40+ year veteran in wealth management and a Registered Investment Advisor. In this video, Mr. Reutermann discusses why he incorporates risk management into his client advisory practice and why you should consider doing this as well.
While this video addresses a niche that AIG (now Corebridge Financial) serves in the marketplace with their GUL product, it is by no means the only product that could be considered. AgencyONE represents over 30 highly rated insurance companies and takes product and planning objectivity very seriously. We work with financial and insurance advisors to serve the best interests of their clients and approach every case from both a product and design suitability perspective and a medical underwriting perspective.


LegacyShield, an online information and document storage system, enables advisors to help their clients manage their most important personal information. They can choose to keep it secure and private or share it immediately or only at an event such as death or incapacity with selected predetermined beneficiaries and/or other individuals.
Finally, AgencyONE has also partnered with the Life Insurance Trust Company to provide you and your clients with an excellent source for trust management services and administration for life insurance policies that are owned by trusts. Life Insurance Trust Company is the first trust company in the United States that is focused exclusively on life insurance trusts and provides fiduciary services to grantors and beneficiaries of irrevocable life insurance trusts that go beyond typical corporate trustee services.
AgencyONE strives to provide advanced information and tools to our AgencyONE 100 advisors that help minimize risk to their practices and clients and to create opportunities to build long-term value for their businesses.
*I have written about the Generational Wealth transfer topic many times and these articles are listed below with active links:
De-Risking Retirement – February 8, 2018
Wealth Preservation: Money in Motion – March 29, 2019
The US Demographic Shift: How It Will Affect the Way We Advise Our Wealth Management Clients – May 10, 2019
Paradigm Shift to Walth Transfer Planning – Do NOT Let Your Clients Wealth Disappear in Three Generations – July 20, 2018
The Great Wealth Transfer – It Can’t be Just About the Money – July 19, 2019
Three Tips to Grow Your Wealth Advisory Practice – August 15, 2019
Please contact AgencyONE’s Marketing Department at 301.803.7500 for more information or to discuss a case.