Many wealth advisors inadvertently short-change their obligations to the families they serve, glossing over a key component of wealth transfer—legacy planning, according to a new book authored by two psychologists. 

Numerous affluent families, meanwhile, admit to less concern about who gets what than being troubled by how future generations will manage the money.

The Legacy Conversation: the missing gem in wealth planning, written by Dr Carolyn Friend and Dr James Weiner, spells out a strategy for creating an intentional legacy plan. “Many advisors see planning as a transaction. They sit with the client and complete the documents, ” according to the authors.

The author’s cite a study from the National Center for Policy Analysis that revealed only one in five children of the wealthy will be rich when they reach retirement age. They maintain that one key to improving that number is a clear legacy strategy before it’s time to decide how the assets will be dispersed.

The challenge is that each generation within a family tends to possess different assumptions and fears about wealth. These varying attitudes often manifest as jealousy, greed, envy and power struggles. Friend and Weiner label these as family dragons.

Friend and Weiner, a husband and wife team, are co-founders of Inheriting Wisdom, a Chicago-based specialty consulting firm. The company focuses solely on a critical component of legacy planning through a self-discovery process that guides wealthy families to design a plan to pass on their legacy with intention. The pair also train wealth advisors on legacy planning strategies.