The Great Wealth Transfer Is Really a Trust Test

What Happened

An estimated $124 trillion in assets will change hands between generations by 2048, making the Great Wealth Transfer the largest intergenerational movement of wealth in recorded history. A recent analysis published in Observer by Thrivent president and CEO Terry Rasmussen argues that the financial services industry has fundamentally misread what this transfer actually requires. The dollars are measurable. The relationships that follow those dollars are not guaranteed.

Rasmussen draws on Thrivent research showing that 68 percent of Americans say it is very important that a financial advisor understands their goals, values, circumstances, and definitions of success. For younger heirs, that expectation shapes the very first financial decision they make after inheriting wealth: whether to continue working with the advisor their parents trusted. That decision, repeated millions of times across the country, will determine which financial firms survive the transfer and which lose entire client relationships overnight.

The article also cites McKinsey research tracking a sharp rise in demand for holistic financial advice, growing from 29 percent of investors in 2018 to 52 percent in 2023. Meanwhile, 76 percent of Gen Z turns to online sources or social media for financial guidance. The message is clear: younger generations arrive at inheritance with more information than any prior generation, but they still seek human understanding that information alone cannot provide. Firms that treat inherited assets as inherited relationships will find themselves on the wrong side of that distinction.

What It Means

The Great Wealth Transfer is not just a financial services story. It carries direct consequences for estate planning, and for the families navigating it. When $124 trillion moves between generations, the legal structures surrounding that wealth determine whether transfers happen smoothly, efficiently, and according to the original owner's wishes, or whether they dissolve into probate courts, family disputes, and eroded inheritances. The article's core argument, that trust must be earned by each generation, applies equally to estate planning as it does to financial advising.

Families without formal estate plans place their heirs in a difficult position. Without a trust or a clearly executed will, assets often pass through probate, a court-supervised process that can take months or years and consume a significant portion of the estate in fees. Probate costs typically run between 3 and 7 percent of an estate's total value. On a $500,000 estate, that translates to $15,000 to $35,000 paid to courts and attorneys before a single heir receives anything. A revocable living trust sidesteps that process entirely, transferring assets directly to beneficiaries without court involvement. For families participating in the Great Wealth Transfer, that difference is not abstract. It represents real money and real time saved during an already difficult period. Learn more about how trusts help families avoid probate and the costs that come with it.

The generational dimension of the transfer also raises specific planning questions. Millennials and Gen Z heirs bring different financial realities to the table, including student debt, equity compensation, entrepreneurship, and longer expected life spans. Estate plans written a decade ago may not reflect those realities. A trust that names outdated beneficiaries, fails to account for blended family dynamics, or does not address digital assets can create exactly the kind of conflict and delay that the original owner hoped to avoid. The federal estate tax exemption currently sits at $15,000,00026 USC 2001(c), 2010; P.L. 119-21 §70106Verified Sep 15, 2026View source per individual, or $30,000,00026 USC 2001(c), 2010; P.L. 119-21 §70106Verified Sep 15, 2026View source per married couple, meaning most estates will not face federal estate tax. But the absence of a tax burden does not eliminate the need for a clear legal structure governing how assets move. Families navigating the Great Wealth Transfer benefit from plans that are current, specific, and built around the actual lives of the people receiving the inheritance. For a deeper look at how wealth moves between generations, the Great Wealth Transfer overview covers the broader context in detail.

The Observer article frames the challenge as one of personalization at scale: financial firms must understand each client as an individual, not as an account number inherited from a prior generation. The same principle applies to estate documents. A generic plan, or no plan at all, fails the next generation in precisely the way Rasmussen describes financial advisors failing younger clients. Specific instructions about asset distribution, trustee selection, and beneficiary designations communicate the same values that good financial advisors try to surface through conversation. The estate plan becomes the written record of those values, carrying them forward even when the original owner cannot.

Context from SimplyTrust

SimplyTrust helps families participate in the Great Wealth Transfer with a clear legal structure in place. A revocable living trust created through SimplyTrust transfers assets directly to beneficiaries, avoids probate, and can be updated at any time as family circumstances change. The platform uses Nevada's legal framework, which carries recognized standing regardless of where the trust creator lives. Families can complete the process from a phone in under 15 minutes, without attorney appointments or confusing legal language. For families thinking about how their wealth will move to the next generation, creating a revocable trust through SimplyTrust establishes the legal foundation that makes that transfer orderly and intentional.

Keeping an estate plan current matters as much as creating one. Life changes, including marriages, divorces, births, deaths, and shifts in financial circumstances, all affect whether an existing plan still reflects the owner's actual wishes. SimplyTrust allows unlimited updates without additional fees, so the plan evolves alongside the family it protects. For anyone who already has a trust but has not reviewed it recently, the 30 reasons to update a trust resource identifies the most common triggers for revisiting an estate plan. The Great Wealth Transfer is already underway. The families best positioned to navigate it are the ones with plans that reflect who they are today, not who they were when they first signed a document years ago.

Source: The Great Wealth Transfer Is a Test of Trust | Observer