How to Serve the Complex Needs of the Entire UHNW Family: Wealthspire's Flanagan

Female ultra-high-net-worth wealth creators and inheritors are taking a bigger role in managing generational wealth. And they are doing so supported by women financial advisors going beyond recommending how and where to invest the money.

So says Heather Flanagan, head of family office services at Wealthspire Advisors, a Barron’s top RIA, in an interview with ThinkAdvisor.

“We’re finding that females are asking their advisors to get more involved and help them organize family conversations and present solutions in order to have smoother wealth transitions,” Flanagan says. “… [Addressing] family issues early on usually results in a better transfer of wealth and better use of it.”

Flanagan believes that women indeed want to educate and prepare their families for that transfer. At the same time, she maintains that the younger generations are more than happy to receive as much information as possible concerning forthcoming inheritances.

Wealthspire, with assets under management of $25.86 billion, offers services to private family offices as well as a host of such services to other clients based on specific needs.

Flanagan, formerly head of trust and family office services at Rockefeller Capital Management, notes in the interview that Wealthspire’s client roster includes families’ younger generations as well as the wealth creators.

“We’ve got multi-billionaire clients and $500,000 clients,” she says. “In a lot of families of wealth, there’s an anchor client with a significant amount of wealth and children and grandchildren that are beginning to build their wealth. We’re serving the needs of the entire family.”

Here are highlights of our conversation:

THINKADVISOR: Why is working with the next generation critical in serving family offices and other ultra-high-net-worth clients?

HEATHER FLANAGAN: Often in the past, financial advisors were doom-and-gloom about future generations: “You’re going to lose the money — ‘shirtsleeves-to-shirtsleeves in three generations’.”

Compare that to now.

That’s not the focus anymore.

Younger generations want to be educated and understand how the wealth was generated and what their parents and grandparents want for them.

But they also have a lot of their own ideas on what to do with their inheritance: They want to start their own business or get involved in their communities, for example.

Often, they want to make the world a better place, to utilize their wealth not only for their own families but to help society. They want to do good things. 

Is this a trend?

It’s a wonderful positive trend with a lot of families we’re meeting with. 

With multiple generations, the opportunities aren’t only to pass on wealth but to pass on family values and for advisors to help educate families about receiving and managing wealth and making important decisions about it.

What sorts of family values are discussed at a family meeting?

First we meet with the generation who created the wealth and ask, “What are you trying to get across at a family meeting?”

Many begin with how they got started — maybe they struggled, and that’s how the family acquired their wealth.

Usually, the first generation created the wealth by starting a business or inheriting or selling a business.

Many of our primary relationships have strong religious convictions they want to pass down or being charitable locally, nationally or internationally.

How can families avoid sibling fights that often erupt once the wealth creators die and the next gen’s inheritances become known?

[That type of] family dynamics is becoming quite popular: Clients are asking about it more. 

We’re trying to get ahead of the game and talk to our families before there’s an emergency, trying to address family issues early on so there can be productive conversations to keep the relationships positive.

That usually results in a better transfer of wealth and a better use of it.