For years, financial advisors have heard about the coming generational transfer of wealth.

Trillions of dollars will eventually move from one generation to the next.

But there is a problem with the way we often talk about that transfer.

Money doesn't simply transfer. Relationships have to transfer too.

And those two things don't necessarily happen together.

An advisor may have served Mom and Dad for 20 or 30 years. They know their retirement plans, investments, insurance, estate strategy and financial history.

But how well do they know the children?

More importantly:

How well do the children know them?

The relationship gap

Adult children have their own lives.

They may live hundreds or thousands of miles away.

They may already have an advisor.

They may use an online investment platform.

Or they may simply have no meaningful connection to the professional their parents have trusted for decades.

Then one day, wealth changes hands.

That's a difficult time to begin building a relationship that could have been developing for years.

What if the relationship began before the inheritance?

This is where I believe family legacy planning creates an overlooked opportunity for advisors.

Conversations about family history, values, charitable intentions, important memories and what Mom and Dad hope their wealth ultimately accomplishes naturally involve more than one generation.

Suddenly, the advisor isn't trying to meet the children because there has been a death or an inheritance.

The advisor already knows them.

They've sat together.

They've heard the family stories.

They understand why the wealth exists and what the family hopes it will accomplish.

That's an entirely different relationship.

Legacy can become the bridge

Financial planning naturally deals with numbers.

Estate planning deals with documents and legal structures.

Family legacy planning adds another dimension:

the people.

It gives advisors a reason to begin conversations that aren't about performance reports, products or portfolios.

And those conversations can involve children and grandchildren long before assets ever change hands.

That's good for families.

But it's also good business.

An advisor who develops meaningful relationships across generations is in a much stronger position to remain the family's advisor when those generations eventually inherit.

Maybe we're asking the wrong question

Instead of asking:

“How do I retain the assets when my client dies?”

Perhaps the better question is:

“What relationship am I building with the people who will eventually inherit them?”

The time to build that relationship isn't after the transfer.

It's now.