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Through 2048, an estimated $124 trillion in wealth is expected to pass from older to younger generations in the U.S. Additionally, $50 trillion will pass laterally to surviving spouses, the large majority of whom will be women, before making its way down to children. Known as the Great Wealth Transfer, it comes with responsibility for both the owners and inheritors of wealth. Here, five steps are outlined to help you and your family prepare for the change that also represents a shift in power with younger generations stepping into their financial strength.

In times of significant change, it is easy to become paralyzed by uncertainty and indecision. However, such changes are inevitably accompanied by new opportunities. In this Wealth Planning Outlook, insights—and action items—are provided on the most vital planning issues amid epochal technological innovation in artificial intelligence (AI); an uncertain, though in many ways familiar, political, and tax landscape; and rapidly evolving attitudes on the greater meaning of wealth and legacy.

Women’s growing economic influence across all generations has been one of the most significant shifts within our economy across recent decades. While this new dynamic represents great progress, many women lack confidence when it comes to investing. To help change this mindset, this issue focuses on sharing stories that lead by experience to build confidence around all aspects of their wealth.

It is not uncommon for enterprising families to end up making sub-optimal capital allocation decisions due to limited visibility into, and planning around, the entirety of their shared family assets. To optimize the value of shared family capital, both the business and other entities or advisors in the enterprise ecosystem must work in harmony. With a well-defined shared family capital strategy and holistic framework, enterprising families will be in a better position to grow and sustain their wealth, promote family unity, and prepare for the road ahead with purpose.

As enterprising families expand across generations, they often stray from their entrepreneurial wealth creation roots to a more risk-averse wealth-protection mode. However, if maintaining shared family capital across multiple generations is the goal, wealth protection mode is not an ideal strategy and may have some unintended consequences.

The more you know about yourself, the better your relationships will be—including with money. In this issue, we celebrate two people who are harnessing their experiences and expertise to help others understand the emotional side of money. From a conversation with Jennifer Risher on breaking the money taboo, to Stan Treger, a behavioral scientist, using psychology to unpack money stories—this issue shows that exploring your relationship with money can be the first step to taking charge of your wealth.

The creation of family wealth takes years of dedication, sacrifice, and hard work. To ensure that the hard-earned wealth is sustainable for generations, mentoring family members plays a key role in the successful transition of family wealth. Serving as an effective framework is the Family Wealth Mentoring Pyramid™ that incorporates five areas: Life Purpose, Wealth Theory, Wealth Operations, Communication Practices, and Wealth Governance.

The current next-generation family members are changing the way families view wealth, no longer focusing on creating wealth for wealth’s sake.