Imagine, for a moment, a fictional family gathering for a weekend getaway for a milestone birthday. In this hypothetical scenario, the Parkers spend the evening at a favorite restaurant for a few hours together before everyone scatters back to their busy lives.
But over coffee the next morning, the conversation turns from strictly celebratory to tactical. A daughter asks whether “help with a home” is possible given today’s market. A son wonders, candidly, what the family’s long-term financial plan actually is – and who is in charge of it. Their parents, in turn, share something they’ve never said out loud: They feel responsible not just for financial outcomes, but for defining the family culture that will shape those outcomes long after they’re gone.
It’s a sentiment we see among some of the families we work with every day, who are trying to figure out the best financial structures for their household amid broader societal changes like the rising cost of living and later marriage timelines.
It is imperative for families to understand these shifts so that they can anticipate pain points ahead and get a jump on addressing them. Below, we take a closer look at some of the issues we’re seeing more often with clients and break down what you need to know about each of these concepts, from supporting adult children to coordinating healthcare.
Cost-of-living pressure is reshaping how parents support adult children
Young adults today face a vastly different economic landscape than the one from a decade or more ago. From housing to food, they can expect to spend much more than prior generations did, leading to possible life launch delays (e.g., buying a home or starting a family later in life).1
Some families are more prepared to give aid than they were in the past, viewing it as necessary in today’s economy. These parents and grandparents understand that the rules of the game have changed since they were young adults.
While this support can provide helpful financial stability, it can also be sporadic and unstructured, leading to sibling comparisons, blurred boundaries and confusion about whether the support is a one-time offer or ongoing investment.
Most crucially, objectivity matters. Parents and grandparents will want to ensure that consistent governance processes are followed for each heir, and that decisions aren’t driven by personality, but by principle.
Ethics and philanthropy are becoming a higher priority
As the world becomes more fragmented, some families are turning to their values as an anchor across generations, focusing on planning within an ethical framework. Part of that includes values statements, which help family office clients codify who they are, how they intend their heirs to behave with the money and the impact they hope their wealth will have on the world.
This focus on purpose is often embodied in their charitable planning. Families may create charitable entities and name specific causes that those entities support. They may even mandate all family member involvement in these causes to ensure adherence to established ethical principles. These endeavors provide an accessible entry point for younger generations to learn about wealth deployment as they are given the opportunity to select organizations that align with their family values.
This can be a tremendous benefit to family members in the next generation, as they learn the discernment and shared decision making it takes to be sound stewards of the family’s wealth in a relatively safe setting.
Younger generations are demanding transparency
Modern-day families are navigating new financial and communication dynamics along with greater global access to information, which can create evolving expectations around transparency among younger generations.
These calls for increased transparency between generations can change family dynamics. This can be positive if they are handled appropriately. Having more conversations about family wealth can make members feel valued and included. On the other hand, these talks can put pressure on parents and grandparents to share more than they planned to earlier than they intended.
J.P. Morgan Wealth Management research has found that while all generations genuinely want to “do right” by their wealth, they may avoid the topic.2 Although communication styles may differ from one generation to the next, it’s imperative to develop clear rules for sharing information and a process for including younger family members.
Premarital planning is becoming more important and sophisticated
Like the rising cost of living, there are other broad changing societal dynamics that are influencing families, including later marriages and blended families. Add business equity and other complicated financial concerns to the mix, and premarital planning can become complex.
As a result, we’re seeing more families opt for prenuptial agreements and trust protection. While one is often enough to protect assets in the event of a divorce, families often want a contingency in place. For example, in some families, an inheritance is passed on via an irrevocable trust, which should ensure that the assets are treated as nonmarital property. But a prenup may also be executed stating that any inheritance is nonmarital.
These families often pay for independent counsel for their child’s soon-to-be spouse. Also, as a gesture of goodwill, some families may take additional steps to pay off the new spouse’s student loans or purchase the newlywed’s home in both of their names. These concessions can help head off potentially contentious disagreements while financially welcoming the new family members.
Families are leaning into health concierge services
Healthcare is also becoming a more important family-wide consideration, given the complexity and expense. Planning for medical care has no shortage of technicalities – financial and logistical. Families need to consider care navigation, patient advocacy, coverage decisions and privacy while managing costs.
To help, some families may hire concierge services for all family members that can coordinate medical providers and facilitate access to leading specialists. These concierge services ensure speed and confidence in medical decision making in times when families might be stressed or overwhelmed on their own.
Adapting your family’s plan for today’s landscape
Modern family wealth planning is increasingly about aligning the family’s intent with the family’s lived reality. Given what we see from clients, here are a few steps to consider:
- Clarify the purpose and terms of your support: Provide flexibility to give aid as needs arise, but be clear about the family’s intention to be fair to all similarly situated family members.
- Put values into practice: Be able to define and memorialize family values, taking personal and philanthropic action in line with those values.
- Create a transparency plan: Information is more available than ever before. Create a proactive plan for how and when to share the family’s wealth plan.
- Prepare for new family members: Discuss prenuptial agreements early with a respectful framing. Providing independent counsel can go a long way toward building trust. And consider embracing new family in ways that align with the family’s values.
- Plan specifically for family wide healthcare: Create frameworks for coordinating insurance and healthcare coverage to ensure all family members receive guidance and maintain access to the most comprehensive care.
The more resilient families aren’t the ones with the most complex structures – they’re the ones with the clearest shared understanding. In an era where costs are moving higher, information travels fast and expectations are evolving, the real opportunity is to be proactive – to replace ambiguity with intentional choices and to turn planning from a set of documents into a durable family operating system.
