Generational Wealth Planning

Strategic Guidance for Multi-Generational Families

Managing wealth across generations isn’t just about protecting assets—it’s about safeguarding your legacy. At Mercer Advisors, we collaborate with families like yours to craft tailored plans that help to ensure long-term financial continuity, foster family harmony, and facilitate seamless transitions of both wealth and leadership.

Why Generational Wealth Planning Is Different

Generational wealth planning goes beyond finances. It’s about integrating wealth with family dynamics, governance, and values. It’s a long-term strategy that addresses:

  • Comprehensive Planning: Combining trusts, complex portfolios, and philanthropic initiatives to work toward legacy goals.
  • Family Alignment: Establishing governance frameworks to foster unity and maintain focus on shared priorities.
  • Tax Efficiency and Privacy: Preserving wealth through tax minimization strategies while maintaining discretion.
  • Flexibility: Adapting plans to the evolving needs of future generations.

Partner with Mercer Advisors to help safeguard your legacy, foster family harmony, and ensure a sustainable future for generations to come. Let us simplify the complexities of wealth management so you can focus on what truly matters: your family’s enduring success.

Legacy Wealth Strategies for Complex Families

Creating an enduring strategy for generational wealth requires careful planning and collaboration. Some key approaches include:

  • Dynasty Trusts and Family Limited Partnerships: These help to ensure asset protection and long-term sustainability while minimizing tax exposure.
  • Charitable Giving Vehicles: We can help determine whether using donor-advised funds or family foundations will help you make a more meaningful impact—while leveraging tax benefits.
  • Liquidity Management: Our goal is to help ensure you and your family have a plan for consistent cash flow to help maintain financial stability.
  • Advisor Coordination: We understand you may have several advisors you’d like to continue working with. We’ll bring together your estate attorneys, CPAs, and family office executives—or use our in-house solutions—to help align all aspects of wealth preservation.

Specialized Services for Generational Wealth

  • Crafting portfolios for multi-generational stability
  • Facilitating governance frameworks for family unity
  • Providing strategies to maximize discretion and privacy
  • Addressing complex liquidity planning needs
  • Optimizing estate and income tax strategies
  • Integrating charitable giving into legacy plans
  • Coordinating trusted advisors for comprehensive execution
  • Involving younger generations to support long-term stewardship

Preparing Future Generations for Leadership

Successful legacy planning doesn’t end with financial strategies. It extends to nurturing leadership within the family. By equipping future leaders with knowledge and guidance, we help to secure a seamless generational transition.

Here’s how:

Education and Mentorship

Providing younger generations with financial literacy training to help ensure responsible stewardship.

Succession Planning

Developing clear plans for leadership transitions in family businesses or trusts.

Governance Frameworks

Defining roles, responsibilities, and decision-making processes to help prevent conflict.

Encouraging Involvement Without Entitlement

Helping younger members find their place within the family’s legacy constructively.

Estate & Tax Considerations
for Long-Term Stewardship

Estate and tax planning are pivotal in securing family wealth for future generations. These actions help minimize tax liabilities while seeking to preserve the wealth your family has built.

Key areas of focus include:

  • Generation-Skipping Trusts: Passing assets directly to grandchildren, thereby minimizing taxation and ensuring long-term growth.
  • Estate Tax Planning: Strategizing around tax thresholds to help protect valuable assets.
  • Expert Coordination: Collaborating with tax advisors to proactively address exposure and implement effective long-term strategies.

Solutions Tailored to Investors Like You

Managing generational wealth requires more than investment oversight—it calls for strategic coordination across estate, tax, and investment planning. These solutions help you protect what you’ve built, align your family’s financial strategy, and prepare the next generation with clarity and confidence.

Estate Planning

Establish or update your estate strategy to reflect your legacy goals, protect family assets, and support a smooth, tax-efficient transfer of wealth.

Investment Management

Align your portfolio with long-term family goals through a disciplined investment approach that balances growth, risk, and income needs over time.

Tax Planning

Minimize tax exposure across generations with proactive strategies that support giving, liquidity needs, and multi-generational asset protection.

Generational Wealth Planning Checklist

Preserving wealth across generations takes more than good intentions—it takes a clear, actionable plan. This checklist highlights foundational steps that help families create alignment, minimize risk, and build a strategy that helps to support both financial and legacy goals across multiple generations.

#1

Mission Statement

Create or review a family mission statement.

#2

Begin
Audit

Audit existing trusts and gifting strategies.

#3

Model Exposure

Model estate and income tax exposure.

#4

Identify
Gaps

Identify governance or succession gaps.

#5

Start Conversations

Engage all generations in the planning conversation.

FAQs for Multi-Generational Families

  • Ultra-high-net-worth families focus on aligning their wealth with core values to instill purpose and stewardship in future generations. Proactive, values-driven planning helps families overcome the common challenge of losing wealth within three generations.

    Successful families emphasize education, purpose-driven conversations, and structured governance. A family wealth vision that details shared goals like innovation, philanthropy, or entrepreneurship helps align investment and giving decisions with your family’s core values. Open communication, such as family meetings discussing your wealth’s origin and purpose, also helps ensure heirs are prepared for leadership roles.

    Ultimately, preserving generational wealth is about passing on wisdom, intention, and purpose—transforming wealth into a tool for lasting impact, identity, and unity across generations.

Let’s Build a Legacy That Lasts