This guide is educational. It describes the topics these conversations can cover, it does not recommend a particular plan, and it is not legal, tax, or individualized investment advice.
What is multigenerational financial planning?
Traditional planning often centers on one household and its own retirement. Multigenerational planning widens the frame. A grandparent's retirement income, a parent's savings, and a young adult's first job can all touch the same family decisions: who may need support, which accounts pass to whom, and how the people involved learn about the plan.
The work is mostly coordination. It brings retirement income, tax planning, estate planning, and investment questions into one conversation, with the family's attorney and tax professional involved where their expertise applies. Outcomes depend on each family's circumstances, and any strategy involves trade-offs.
What topics come up when several generations plan together?
Every family is different, but these questions appear often:
- Retirement income for the older generation: how withdrawals, Social Security, and required minimum distributions may fit together. Our RMD guide for retirees covers the distribution rules.
- Support across generations: whether and how a family may help with education costs, a first home, or care for an aging parent, and what that could mean for the giver's own retirement.
- Beneficiary designations and account titling: whether the names on retirement accounts, insurance policies, and investment accounts match the family's current intentions.
- Inherited retirement accounts: how distribution rules may apply to the next generation. Our article on the inherited IRA ten-year rule explains the main questions to check.
- Estate documents: whether wills, trusts, powers of attorney, and health care directives are current. An estate-planning attorney prepares or reviews these.
- Family business interests: how ownership, leadership, and family roles may be handled over time.
How do gift and estate tax rules affect family transfers?
Federal gift and estate tax rules set limits that may matter when a family transfers assets. The IRS lists the annual gift tax exclusion at $19,000 per recipient for 2026, and the federal basic exclusion amount for estates of people who die in 2026 at $15,000,000. Both figures are adjusted over time, and Congress can change the underlying rules. Sources: IRS, What's new: Estate and gift tax and IRS, tax inflation adjustments for tax year 2026, both accessed September 30, 2026.
These thresholds do not describe any one family's tax result. Whether a gift requires a return, how gifts interact with the lifetime exclusion, and how state rules apply are questions for a qualified tax professional or attorney.
How can a family organize before a planning conversation?
Gathering information first can make a first meeting more useful. A general starting list:
- List each family member's accounts, real estate, business interests, and debts, and note who owns each item.
- Collect current beneficiary designations for retirement accounts and life insurance.
- Locate wills, trusts, powers of attorney, and health care directives, and note the date of each and the attorney who prepared it.
- Write down the questions each generation wants answered, such as retirement timing, support for a family member, or how a transfer might work.
- Identify the professionals already involved, including the family's attorney, tax professional, and insurance contacts.
Our guide to net worth management for families walks through a fuller inventory and review checklist.
What should families in High Point ask a planning team?
Families comparing planners in High Point, Greensboro, Winston-Salem, and Jamestown may want to ask:
- Coordination: How does the firm work with our attorney and tax professional? A financial planning team coordinates the financial side. It does not prepare legal documents.
- Scope: Which topics would the conversation cover, such as retirement income, tax planning, estate planning coordination, and investment management?
- Compensation and custody: How is the firm paid, and does it hold client assets? The firm's Form ADV Part 2A describes its services, fees, and business practices, and is available at adviserinfo.sec.gov.
- Family involvement: Can several generations take part in meetings, and how is privacy handled for each person?
- Fit: Does the firm's explanation of the process match how our family wants to make decisions?
Asking the same questions of each firm makes the answers easier to compare.
How do families bring the next generation into the conversation?
Timing and format vary. Some families begin with a general discussion of values and priorities. Others start with practical topics, such as where documents are kept and who to call if a parent cannot act. Adult children may not need to see every number to understand the plan, and privacy preferences should be respected. A planner can facilitate these conversations, but the decisions about what to share belong to the family.
Our Families page describes the broader planning conversations that can arise across generations.
What are common questions about multigenerational financial planning?
The FAQ below answers the most common questions in brief. For how these topics may apply to your own family, schedule a conversation about financial planning. We can talk through your questions and where coordination with your attorney and tax professional may be appropriate.
This article is general information, not individualized investment, tax, or legal advice, and it does not account for your circumstances. Tax rules referenced are those in effect at the date shown and change over time. Consult a qualified professional before acting.