Will your practice outlive your current baby-boomer clients? One way to ensure continuity is to develop professional relationships with those clients’ children. And the best time to start is now, while you can learn as much as you can about those young people from their parents.

Asif Nasim, principal of Wickware Communications Inc. in Toronto, shares three elements to developing this intergenerational relationship:

> Understand the millennial generation
The attitude toward investing and saving among millennials might surprise you, Nasim says.

This generation was old enough to witness the effects of the financial crisis of 2008. These young adults might have seen their parents lose money in the markets, and they themselves might have found it difficult to find or keep employment. These experiences have produced a group of peers who generally prefer saving over investing.

Experienced advisors who have the trust of millennials’ parents are in a good position to connect with members of this generation.

Millennials are open to receiving advice from an advisor, Nasim says, especially if this advice is based on a referral from a trusted source such as a family member or a close friend.

> Invite clients and their children to a meeting
Through the relationship with your clients, you likely have already learned a fair bit about their children. It is only natural to ask what the kids are up to and whether they’ve embarked on any major life changes, such as starting a new job or marriage.

These life stages can trigger an opportunity to invite the children to a meeting. Also, remember that these children are likely your clients’ beneficiaries and can benefit from getting to know their parents’ advisor.

“If kids are in a situation where they don’t have a relationship with an advisor and they come into large sums of money,” says Nasim, “it’s just another point of stress.”

By inviting children into meetings with their parents, you can help the family understand estate planning processes and answer questions before the wealth transfer has begun to take place.

A key element of that meeting should be an agenda to ensure there aren’t any surprises, Nasim says. Discuss the meeting’s topics and ask your clients to approve the agenda beforehand. Your clients may not want certain aspects of their finances to be revealed to their children. For example, they may not want to inform their children of their estate’s full value because they want their sons and daughters to remain committed to continuing their education or earning their own income.

> Invite children to social events
Just as you would socialize with your top clients in order to strengthen the relationship, invite their children to personalized outings in order to build those connections.

Plan events that are fun and family-friendly, so you can involve multiple generations. You might consider a cooking class or a day of golf. For millennials who have children of their own, you might consider a movie outing.

Keep these events lighthearted and fun, Nasim says. Save the business talk for the office.
“You’re trying to show more of a human side,” he says, “by relating to people outside of the context of financial planning.”