The Great Wealth Transfer: what it means for UK families

The scale of what is coming

The numbers attached to the Great Wealth Transfer are large enough to feel abstract. USD 74 trillion passing between generations by 2050. USD 83 trillion in total assets changing hands, including lifetime gifts and transfers outside of inheritance. The United States alone is projected to see more than USD 29 trillion transfer over the coming decades.

For UK families, the picture is no less significant. A generation that benefited from post-war property appreciation, defined-benefit pension schemes, and several decades of broadly rising markets is now at the stage where wealth begins to move. Some of that movement is planned. Much of it is not.

CFA Institute's research, published in March 2026 and drawing on surveys across six major wealth markets, found that 86% of Gen Z and millennial respondents expect to receive an inheritance. More than 70% of those expect it to arrive within the next decade. Around a third expect their inheritance alone to take them over the threshold for high-net-worth status in their country.

That is a substantial cohort of people about to receive significant wealth, most of whom have not yet had a serious conversation with a professional adviser about what to do when it arrives.

Most inheritors do not keep their parents' adviser

This is the finding that should concern any family thinking carefully about continuity. Research cited by CFA Institute shows that only 19% of US-based retail investors adopted their parents' financial adviser. More than 90% of affluent investors who currently use advisers did not even consider their parents' adviser when making their own selection.

The pattern is likely to be similar in the UK. It does not reflect a failure of the adviser relationship so much as a structural gap: the children were never introduced to that relationship in a meaningful way. When the inheritance arrives, they are effectively starting from scratch, often at a moment of emotional difficulty and financial complexity when starting from scratch is the last thing they need.

Families who want professional continuity across generations need to build those relationships before the transfer takes place, not after.

What triggers young people to seek advice

The CFA Institute research found that two thirds of Gen Z and millennial investors who currently have a financial adviser began that relationship after a significant life event. The most common triggers were receiving an inheritance, buying a first home, a career change, starting a family, and getting married.

More than half of those without an adviser said a similar event would prompt them to seek one. The implication is that the majority of young people are not opposed to professional financial guidance. They simply have not yet reached the moment that makes it feel necessary.

For parents and grandparents thinking about this, the question is whether to wait for that moment to arrive or to create the conditions for the relationship to form earlier. Introducing children to a trusted adviser during a period of stability, when there is no pressure and no urgency, tends to produce better outcomes than handing them a name and a phone number at the point of bereavement.

The life paths of younger generations are less linear

One reason cross-generational financial planning needs to start early is that the life paths of millennials and Gen Z are genuinely different from those of previous generations. The traditional sequence — education, employment, marriage, property, family, retirement — has given way to something more varied and less predictable.

Career changes are more frequent. Home ownership is delayed or structured differently. Some have children later; others not at all. Partnership structures vary. International mobility is greater.

Each of these differences has implications for the way wealth transfers and the structures that should sit around it. A will written for one set of circumstances may be poorly suited to another. Powers of attorney established without discussion may not reflect what a parent actually wants. Pension death benefit nominations may not have been reviewed since they were first set up.

Good intergenerational planning accounts for the life that is actually being lived, not the life that was assumed.

The April 2027 pension IHT change adds urgency

From April 2027, most pension assets will fall within the scope of inheritance tax for the first time. This is a significant change that affects a large number of UK families who have structured their estate planning around the assumption that pension funds sit outside their taxable estate.

For families where pension assets are substantial, this change shifts both the tax calculation and the sequencing of how wealth should be drawn down and transferred. It is one of several reasons why intergenerational planning conversations that might have felt comfortable to defer are now more pressing.

Our detailed guide to the April 2027 pension IHT changes covers the mechanics and the planning options in full.

What good cross-generational planning looks like in practice

There is no single template, because every family is different. But the common elements of a well-structured approach tend to include the following.

Introducing children to professional advice at the right moment

This does not mean involving children in every financial decision from an early age. It means identifying the natural points, a first job, a first property, a period of significant change, where a conversation with a trusted adviser would be genuinely useful rather than premature. The goal is a relationship built on familiarity and trust before it is needed urgently.

Having honest conversations about wealth and its purpose

The CFA Institute research found that younger investors are significantly more likely than older generations to want their portfolio to reflect their personal values. More than 90% of Gen Z and millennial respondents said personal values matter in investment decisions. Families who have never discussed what they believe about wealth, its purpose, how it should be used, and what responsibilities come with it, often find those conversations happening under pressure after a transfer, when they are harder to navigate.

Keeping structures under review

Wills, powers of attorney, trust structures, pension nominations, and business succession arrangements all need to be reviewed regularly and updated when circumstances change. The proportion of families where these documents are genuinely current is lower than it should be.

Thinking about timing, not just quantum

Inheritance tax planning tends to focus on reducing the taxable estate. That is important. But equally important is thinking about when wealth transfers, not just how much. A gift made at the right moment in a child's life, when they have the maturity and the support to use it well, is worth considerably more than the same sum arriving ten years later.

A note on this series

This article is the first in a four-part series drawn from CFA Institute's research on next-generation investors. The series looks at what younger investors actually want from professional advice, how their portfolio priorities differ from previous generations, and the behavioural risks that make good financial guidance more valuable, not less, for a generation that considers itself financially confident.

If any of these themes are relevant to your own family's planning, we would be glad to talk it through.

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