Your wealthiest clients are getting older. What have you done to secure their children as clients to keep your biggest accounts?
We've helped our clients with hundreds of trust administrations, and one thing we've learned:
Most children who receive an inheritance do not have a financial advisor - but they know they need one.
Factors that affect financial advisor retention in wealth transfers:
Quality of the estate plan
Whether probate was required
The advisor's level of helpful involvement during the trust administration
Proactive engagement, smooth administration, and alignment with heirs' needs can boost retention - while delays and lack of support drive them away.
5 Steps to Secure the Next Generation Clients
1. Make Sure Your Client Has an Updated and Funded Living Trust Estate Plan
It starts with an estate plan - and one that is current and funded. If your clients have a current living trust estate plan and their non-qualified accounts are titled in their living trust, as well as their other probatable assets, especially real property, then they shouldn't need a conservatorship and their estate should avoid probate.
2. Encourage Your Clients to Include Asset Protection Trusts for Their Children in Their Living Trust
Living trusts can include provisions so children receive their inheritance in separate asset protection trusts, rather than outright. This can protect the inheritance from divorce and lawsuits, while still giving them control. And they will need a financial advisor to invest their inherited trust assets.
3. Make Sure Your Client's Retirement Plan Beneficiaries are Current
Nothing is worse than an IRA that goes through probate because there was no living beneficiary. This can happen when the IRA owner's spouse dies, and he fails to name a new beneficiary. And nothing will destroy a relationship with the advisor and the client's children faster than an IRA going through probate.
4. Get to Know Your Client's Family
As your clients get older, they may want one of their children to help them with their finances and investments. This can be a great chance to build a relationship with the child who most likely will be the successor trustee.
5. Be a Reliable Partner with the Successor Trustee and Estate Planning Attorney
One of the best opportunities to forge a relationship with your client's children is during the trust administration. Financial advisors can make or break a trust administration. They can help make it easy and quick, or they can grind it to a frustrating crawl. The advisors who work well with the client's successor trustee, children, and estate planning attorney have a much better chance of keeping the children as clients.
Here’s how we can help
ESTATE PLANNING
Work with your client to establish a comprehensive estate plan that can avoid conservatorship and probate.
BENEFICIARY DESIGNATIONS
Work with you and your client to effectively name the primary and contingent beneficiaries for their retirement plans.
TRUST ADMINISTRATION
Help you and your client's successor trustee and children efficiently complete the trust administration.
PARTNER WITH YOU
If the trust administration is done efficiently and not hijacked by an attorney's ego, your client's children win, and you win.
We make it easy for you and your clients to work with us.
Virtually
From the convenience of your office or your clients home or office.
In-Person
In one of our California offices:
4944 Windplay Drive
Ste. 117
El Dorado Hills
2520 Douglas Blvd.
Ste. 160
Roseville
1150 Osos St.
Ste. 205
San Luis Obispo
8880 Rio San Diego Dr.
Ste. 800
San Diego
Get our Free Guide on How to Fund a Living Trust and Name IRA and Life Insurance Beneficiaries.
Meet our team
We'd love to hear from you to see how we can work together.
If you'd like to discuss how we can work together to help your clients, please complete the form below, and Clark will contact you right away.