IGM Financial announced a partnership with LegacyNex last week, an Oakville, Ont. startup that produces customized books and audio recordings for clients who want to create a keepsake for their loved ones. The service will be offered to IG Private Wealth Management clients on a non-exclusive basis.
“LegacyNex helps preserve the stories, values and experiences behind a family’s wealth through guided conversations and professionally crafted legacy narratives,” said Christine Van Cauwenberghe, head of financial planning at IG Wealth Management in an emailed statement.
“We’ve long known that 70% of family wealth is lost by the second generation and 90% by the third,” she said. “The issue is rarely the financial plan itself. It’s the lack of preparation and communication across generations. Too often, assets are transferred without the purpose, values and lessons that created them. LegacyNex helps families pass on not just wealth, but wisdom.”
The company was launched in 2024 by Elena Iacono, a former telecom communications professional who developed the concept after her father and grandmother passed within six months of one another.
“My father … was 68 years old,” she said in an interview. “I wish I would have taken more time to document and record his leadership traits, things that … as I continue to live my life, I could return to. I didn’t. We ran out of time.”
Issues related to Iacono’s grandmother’s estate have “completely torn apart the family,” she said. “As much as documents were in place, the essence of who she was is gone. The values that could have brought the family back together — out the window.”
Iacono offers a high-touch service she describes as “human inheritance.” She interviews clients and then Iacono and her team write the book and build the audio archive. She’s been promoting the service to financial advisors looking to add a personal element to their relationship with estate planning clients.
“It really strengthens the relationship between the advisor and client,” Iacono said. “It’s a deeper engagement with the family. … I think it also allows the advisor to start a relationship with the next generation.”
Getting emotional
A lot of advisors struggle to build emotional bonds with clients and their families. That’s understandable given the traditional nature of the job, but it’s unfortunate given what they provide and the difference it makes to so many people.
Increasingly, advisors who find ways to connect with clients more personally are better able to build successful multigenerational relationships.
“The advisor that gets this is the advisor that is really seeing the relationship with their clients evolving,” Iacono said. “My mom’s advisors didn’t know who I was and I didn’t know who they were. I had no problem cutting that relationship. But imagine the advisor that enabled this — I mean, geez, take all my money. Manage it all.”
