1. The transmission challenge
By 2048, generation X (aged 44 to 59 in 2025), millennials (aged 28 to 43 in 2025) and generation Z (aged 12 to 27 in 2025) are expected to inherit 83,500 billion dollars. This is the largest transfer of wealth ever seen. For families, inheritance is a major challenge, to ensure that wealth is preserved over the generations.
“The transmission induces a significant risk of wealth dilution,” explains Hélie de Cornois, partner at Stonehage Fleming Group and head of the Family Office division in Luxembourg. “One of the challenges, within families, is to establish, upstream of the inheritance, the conditions for maintaining and enhancing the value of the estate, avoiding numerous pitfalls linked to disagreements between the parties involved, the structuring of assets or even family organisation.”
With this in mind, families are taking care to involve the next generation in these issues earlier and earlier, and to bring their members together around robust governance.
2. Heirs and the need for impact
The priorities and aspirations of wealthy individuals, whether they have inherited or built up their wealth alone, change from one generation to the next. Wealth management advisers need to understand and meet these new expectations: more than eight out of ten members of the Next Gen plan to change managers within two years of inheriting.
“Because they were made aware of wealth management issues earlier and because they are better informed, the younger generation are all the more involved and value transparency more,” comments 
3. Increased family mobility
Over the years, and even more so in a context of accelerating transmission, the composition of assets and families tends to become more complex. “Both family members and assets held can be located on several continents, in a multitude of jurisdictions,” explains 
More than ever, wealthy families are looking for comprehensive care.
Illustrating these challenges, the 2025 edition of the “UBS Billionaire Ambitions Report” indicates that billionaires continue to move: 36% say they have already changed their country of residence at least once and 9% plan to do so. A better quality of life (36%), major geopolitical concerns (36%) and the possibility of organising their tax affairs more efficiently (35%) are among the main motivations cited.
In addition to geographical mobility, the growing diversity of life paths, which are less and less linear, as well as current geopolitical tensions, further reinforce this complexity. “Every change of direction raises its own set of questions. Our role, as a partner to the families we support around the world over several generations, is to enable them to deal as effectively as possible with the risks associated with each decision – or non-decision”, explains Hélie de Cornois, who supports families in Belgium, France, Luxembourg, the United Kingdom and the United States. “In a world marked by strong geopolitical uncertainties, these issues are exacerbated and invite us to reconsider both the location of assets and that of family members.”
4. A changing client base
Wealth managers today have to serve a much more heterogeneous client base. As Lucienne Andring points out, “Alongside entrepreneurs, the client base includes many other profiles: young innovators, women who have made their mark in the business world, and heirs involved in managing the family estate.” As a result, advisers and managers have to be extremely flexible to adapt to the diversity of profiles. “We have, for example, been called upon to support professional sportspeople, whose wealth management requires greater anticipation given the limited duration of their careers,” illustrates Hélie de Cornois.
5. New assets to integrate
In the current context, investment dynamics are changing. While families are becoming less and less rooted in their home territories, asset allocation is also taking place in a resolutely international environment. “Asset management is about diversification,” explains Lucienne Andring. “Established families are attentive to opportunities as well as risks, investing as much in the United States as in Europe or Asia.”
But diversification is not just geographical. There is a growing attraction for alternative investments, such as private assets: private equity, infrastructure and real estate. “For some years now, these assets have no longer been the preserve of a few very large family offices. Their democratisation is opening up new prospects for wealthy private clients looking for new diversification levers and solutions offering higher returns,” says Hélie de Cornois.
Managing these specific assets, with their limited liquidity, means that asset managers need to strengthen their teams in order to better appreciate market opportunities and advise families appropriately.
Asset allocation approaches can vary considerably from one family to another, depending on stakeholder expectations. While some focus on financial performance, others want to maximise the societal or environmental impact of their investments. Members of the new generation increasingly want to play an active role in these choices, with real autonomy.
“While diversification is increasing, more than ever our customers want all their assets to be housed and managed from a single platform – in Luxembourg, for example - to ensure consistent approaches. This requires tailor-made solutions, covering all asset classes and placing the interests of families at the heart of our concerns,” concludes Claude Medernach.
This article was written for the Wealth management & Private banking supplement of Paperjam magazine’s March 2026 issue, published on 25 February. It is published on the site to contribute to the full Paperjam archive. Click this link to subscribe to the magazine.
