The Great Wealth Transfer

Fintech’s Next Frontier in a $84 Trillion Shift

The world is witnessing an unprecedented generational wealth migration: an estimated $84 trillion will move from aging Baby Boomers to Gen X, Millennials, and Gen Z by 2045. This Great Wealth Transfer marks one of the largest shifts in economic power in history, reshaping not only family legacies but the financial industry itself.

As trillions of dollars shift to these heirs, their financial preferences are starting to take center stage: roughly 70% of heirs are likely to switch financial advisors after receiving an inheritance. In other words, if incumbents don’t adapt, new wealth will flow away to more tech-savvy providers. This next generation expects a different kind of wealth experience:

• Values-aligned options: Younger generations are more socially conscious. They prioritize sustainable, ethical investing. Morgan Stanley Wealth Management reports interest in ESG investing is nearly universal among millennials. They expect their wealth managers to offer impact investments and transparent ESG data by default.

• Hyper-personalized guidance: By 2030, up to 80% of new wealth management clients will seek data-driven, hyper-personalized advice, often via subscription-based or AI-powered models. 

• Digital-first convenience: They want the ability to manage finances through intuitive mobile and web platforms anytime, anywhere. Over one-third of Gen Z already prefer fintech apps over traditional banks for daily payments.

• Seamless, instant service: Having grown up in an on-demand era, next-gen clients value speed and simplicity. From instant digital account setup to real-time portfolio monitoring, they gravitate to providers who can offer modern, simple, and intuitive experiences.

  
  

As these expectations reshape the wealth landscape, fintech is responding across multiple fronts from AI-powered wealth management and digital estate planning to embedded financial education and values-aligned investing:

AI-Driven Wealth Management: Personalizing Financial Advice

Artificial intelligence is transforming wealth management, offering personalized, scalable financial advice to a broader audience.

• Mezzi: Mezzi positions itself as a real-time AI wealth copilot, helping users manage their finances through intelligent prompts, contextual planning, and actionable insights. It's tailored for clients who don’t want to wait on a human advisor and often don’t need one.

• PortfolioPilot: PortfolioPilot combines machine learning with macroeconomic analysis to offer personalized portfolio recommendations, built for both retail and advisor use. Its strength lies in its ability to synthesize complex data into simple, next-best actions for wealth optimization.

Digital Estate Planning: Modernizing Legacy Management

• Wealth.com: Wealth.com offers a full-service estate planning platform tailored for advisors and high-net-worth clients, providing legally compliant tools across all 50 U.S. states. Its sleek interface and white-label capabilities make it a top choice for RIAs and private banks looking to modernize legacy conversations with next-gen heirs.

• Vanilla: Vanilla combines AI and advisor tooling to bring estate planning into portfolio conversations, helping visualize complex trust structures in a user-friendly way. It's already integrated into major custodians, positioning itself as the bridge between traditional advisors and their digitally native clients.

• Trust & Will: Trust & Will delivers consumer-friendly estate tools, wills, trusts, and guardianship documents, all online, without the legal maze. Their partnerships with financial institutions like Fifth Third and advisors like LPL make them a key player in embedding estate planning into everyday financial services.

Financial Literacy: Preparing the Next Generation

• Goalsetter: Goalsetter blends banking, savings, and culturally relevant financial education into one platform, focusing on empowering families and underserved youth. It's become a go-to for community banks aiming to build long-term relationships with young savers before they inherit.

• Zogo: Zogo turns financial education into bite-sized, gamified lessons, with a rewards system designed to engage Gen Z users. The company partners with hundreds of credit unions and fintech apps to embed learning directly into everyday digital banking.

• Greenlight: Greenlight offers smart debit cards for kids and teens which includes real-time spend tracking, goal setting, and lessons in investing. With millions of families onboard, it's quietly becoming a formative financial platform for the heirs of tomorrow.

Values-Based Investing: Aligning Portfolios with Principles

• Ethic: Ethic provides custom ESG portfolio creation tools for financial advisors, helping them align client investments with values around sustainability, diversity, and governance. As interest in impact investing grows, Ethic’s B2B infrastructure is quietly powering some of the largest wealth managers in the U.S.

• OpenInvest: OpenInvest, acquired by JPMorgan, offers thematic investing modules that let clients toggle values in real time, everything from gender equity to climate action. It's helping bridge the gap between ESG enthusiasm and actual portfolio implementation for mass-affluent investors.

The Great Wealth Transfer isn’t just a redistribution of assets; it’s a generational handoff of financial priorities, behaviors, and loyalties. As trillions move into younger hands, the institutions that survive will be those that evolve: offering smarter tools, more transparent experiences, and products that reflect the values of modern investors.

For fintech, this is a defining moment. The winners won’t be those with the longest legacy but those building for the next one.