This is an edited extract from the Professional Planner ‘Guide to advice for high-net-worth clients and family offices’, download the full copy of the guide here.
Just as many families have a trusted GP who’s cared for them over decades, our vision is for more Australian families to have a trusted financial adviser — someone who supports them across life stages, through financial transitions, and across generations.
Unfortunately, this kind of relationship is still rare. Most financial advice in Australia is limited to an individual or couple. Children and extended family are rarely brought into the fold — often because they don’t yet need advice or, by the time they do, they’ve formed separate networks and connected with transactional advisers focused on discrete needs like superannuation, insurance or mortgages.
Meanwhile, fiduciary-style holistic advisers have historically gravitated toward already wealthy pre-retirees or retirees — those with substantial assets and the means to pay for and leverage more sophisticated advice. And Australia’s regulatory regime hasn’t helped. Many advisers have been wary of offering even basic guidance to adult children, for fear of crossing into ‘personal advice’ territory.
As a result, younger generations have often missed out on early engagement with high-quality, values-driven advice. But that’s changing.
As Australia’s wealth holders age and begin transferring assets, the demand for multi-generational advice is poised to accelerate — particularly among high-net-worth (HNW) and ultra-high-net-worth (UHNW) families with meaningful intergenerational capital to manage.
Not for every adviser
Multi-generational advice isn’t a commercial fit for every advisory firm — especially those firms who are focused on the mass affluent. In many of these families, wealth is concentrated in the family home and superannuation. By the time these are passed on, there may be little left for the next generation beyond a modest inheritance — often used to pay down mortgages or top up super.
But in families with enduring wealth — where assets are significant, diversified, and designed to outlast the current generation — the need for ongoing advice that engages both the first, second and even the third generation – is far greater. In these families, the second generation likely already owns property and has independent income streams. They often don’t need immediate access to inherited capital, which gives them the luxury of choice — and the opportunity to make deliberate, values-aligned decisions.
In these cases, the adviser’s role shifts from guiding survival-based financial decisions to helping shape long-term legacy choices. It’s not about choosing between a $3 million or $5 million holiday house — it’s about articulating family values, defining stewardship, and determining how best to preserve unity, purpose, and capital across generations.
The complexity is often less financial than emotional and strategic. The adviser becomes a translator of priorities and an orchestrator of outcomes — balancing financial logic with family dynamics and deeply held beliefs.
Families are complicated
Every family is different. Some are open and collaborative. Others are private or patriarchal. Some generations are close; others are more distant. Navigating this terrain requires more than technical competence — it demands emotional intelligence, diplomacy, and deep listening.
A true multi-generational adviser must understand not just the balance sheet, but the family story — its values, history, priorities, and personalities. They’re often working with mature adults in their 40s and 50s, as well as their parents in their 70s or 80s — each with their own experiences, preferences, and sometimes egos. Increasingly, they’re also engaging with a third generation now in their 20s or 30s.
It’s a dynamic and evolving environment. The best advisers know when to listen, when to guide, and when to step in as a neutral arbiter. Their role is to support the family as a unit — not to take sides, but to act as a trusted, independent sounding board who understands the full picture and is respected by each generation.
That’s the art of advice. If the science is strategy, structure and tax — the art is empathy, connection and trust.
Deep capability, deep commitment
To serve these families well, private wealth firms must offer broad capabilities — from estate planning and tax structuring to superannuation, philanthropy, investment management, and succession planning. They must also meet clients where they are in life — supporting older generations with intergenerational asset protection while helping younger family members with cashflow, insurance, tax optimisation and retirement strategy.
But beyond technical breadth, they need deep commitment. Multi-generational advisers are on call for whatever matters to the family — from coordinating philanthropic gifts to organising horse-riding lessons for a grandchild. If it’s important to the client, it’s important to the adviser.
Naturally, this is a high-touch service. Advisers can realistically work with only a small number of families — perhaps 15 to 20 at most. That’s not just a bandwidth issue — it’s about emotional bandwidth too. Wealthy families can be exacting, and the job requires patience, discretion, and a willingness to be fully invested in the relationship.
Advisory firms in this space must invest in continuity — supporting current Partners while developing the next generation. That generational depth within the firm is key to engaging younger family members and ensuring continuity of service, relationship, and values.
