Is the average age of the clients in your book 65?

Are you confident that all of your assets under management will remain in your hands when your older clients die?

Are you willing to bet your business on it?

Successful FAs always look for net new assets. But what happens when high net worth clients pass their reins to a younger successor?  More often than not, the successor will find a new FA and the CSA has to do an ACAT out, reducing the FA’s assets under management.

You don’t want this to happen to you!  And fortunately, it doesn’t have to — when you learn how to retain your assets through the generations.

You already know how to create deep relationships with your mature, established clients; that’s what makes you a high producing FA. In this article, I’m going to show you how to create deep client relationships with theyounger generations, too.  This will allow you to maintain your assets as they are transmitted through the generations of a high net worth family.

It’s All About Relationships

Last week, I spoke at a lunch for high-producing FAs in Philadelphia.  During my program, I noticed that one man — let’s call him Phil — was nervously smoothing his tie whenever I talked about cross-generational selling strategies. When I asked him what was wrong, he said that he had just lost a $5 million dollar account. Phil had been working with this client, a successful doctor, for years. Unfortunately, the doctor died unexpectedly.

Phil went to the funeral and gave his condolences to the wife and grown children; he assumed that business would go on as usual. Within a few weeks, though, he was told that the son was moving the account to a competitor.

“I never saw it coming,” Phil said, shaking his head woefully.  “I wish I had taken the time to create a succession plan with my client, years ago.”

Just Who Are These Generations?

To create deep relationships, it’s important to understand what shaped each generation. We all know there are different “generations” — but few of us can identify the three groups that dominate today’s workplace.  According to demographers, they are:

• Baby Boomers — born between 1946 and 1960, this group is 82 million strong
• Generation X —a smaller group at 59 million, with laser focus on results and benefits
• Generation Y (or The Millennials) — The under-30s, a large cohort (80 million), that holds the key to how we’ll live and work tomorrow

Each of these generations was shaped by the unique political, technological and societal events that occurred during their formative years. Consequently, each generation has its own values, personality, language and buying habits.

Not surprisingly, each generation also has its own idea of “the perfect FA,” and its own goals for that relationship.

How could this info help Phil? Read next week’s blog to find out.