In a feature article about the “mass exodus” of financial advisers from accountancy firms to family offices, AFR work and careers reporter Rachael Bolton asks what it takes to be a wealth adviser to high-net-worth families.
“The new wealth adviser needs to be a sense check, life coach and general problem-solver, helping clients navigate issues from business strategy to bank accounts, family fights to succession planning,” she writes.
The article quotes ABL employment & workplace advisory partner Bridget Little explaining that the transfer of wealth from one generation to the next “encompasses not only financial assets, but also the human capital, often including rusted-on advisers”.
“The dynamic between generations and their preferred advisers can be especially sensitive in family office environments, where the distinction between the personal and the professional can be quite blurred,” Bridget says.
“The wealth builder generation has often acquired a trusted adviser from early on in their career, perhaps an accountant or lawyer who happened to be sitting in the right chair when the music stopped and the money started flowing in. That person can sometimes have trouble transitioning advice to the younger generations, whom they have watched grow up and who may have different objectives and interests.
“When younger members of the family are in a position to make their own mark, it can cause friction and an element of power play with inherited advisers whose view of the world has been tailored to the outgoing patriarch or matriarch.”
To read the full article, click here.
