New research reveals why demographic-based strategies are failing as wealth shifts across generations–and how psychographic intelligence enables persuasive personalization at scale
Psympl®, a psychographic intelligence platform purpose-built for financial services, today released a new executive whitepaper, The $124 Trillion Great Wealth Transfer: Psychographics Are the Key to Protecting and Growing AUM. The report examines the most significant intergenerational transfer of wealth in U.S. history and argues that traditional demographic and generational assumptions are insufficient to retain assets, influence heirs, and sustain long-term advisory relationships.
Over the next two decades, an estimated $84 trillion to $124 trillion will shift from Baby Boomers to spouses, children, grandchildren, and charities. While the magnitude of the transfer is well documented, Psympl’s research highlights a more urgent challenge for wealth managers, banks, and financial institutions: the psychographic mismatch between current clients and the next generation of decision-makers.
“The Great Wealth Transfer is often framed as a future event, but it’s already underway, and the risk to AUM is real,” said Ran Mullins, Founder and CEO of Psympl®. “What’s changing isn’t just who holds the assets, but how people think about money, trust institutions, and make financial decisions. Firms that continue to rely on age-based or demographic segmentation will lose relevance precisely when relationships matter most.”
Authored by Brent Walker, Co-Founder and Chief Strategy Officer at Psympl®, the white paper draws on decades of psychographic research, including Psympl’s financial psychographic model, developed through research conducted in collaboration with Ipsos. The model identifies five distinct financial mindsets that transcend generations, wealth, and attitudes toward financial advisors–revealing why heirs frequently disengage from their parents’ advisors despite having similar balance sheets.
“The industry tends to assume that generational differences explain behavior, but that’s a costly oversimplification,” said Walker. “Psychographics explain why people act the way they do: how they perceive risk, what they value, how much guidance they want, and what language actually motivates them. When assets transfer, those differences become decisive, especially because more than 40% of advisor relationships turn over among inheritors.”
Key findings from the whitepaper include:
— Gen X, not Millennials, represents the most immediate AUM inflection point, yet exhibits the widest psychographic variation.
— Nearly half of advisors view the Great Wealth Transfer as an existential threat, driven by poor heir retention.
— Values-aligned investing, philanthropy, and real estate decisions vary sharply by psychographic segment–not just generation.
— Persuasive personalization, grounded in psychographic insight, significantly improves engagement, trust, and continuity across generations.
The report concludes that success during the Great Wealth Transfer will depend on moving from single-generation asset management to multi-generational relationship management–supported by psychographic intelligence, adaptive communication, and scalable personalization.
“Ultimately, this is about influence, not information,” Mullins added. “The firms that win will be those that understand how different people think about wealth–not just how much of it they have.”
The $124 trillion Great Wealth Transfer whitepaper is available now at psympl.com.
About Psympl®
Psympl® is a psychographic intelligence platform designed for financial services, wealth management, and consumer finance. Powered by Psychographic AI(TM), Psympl enables persuasive personalization by uncovering the motivations, values, and decision-making styles that drive financial behavior. Psympl’s solutions integrate with existing data and MarTech stacks to help institutions retain assets, deepen relationships, and communicate with relevance at scale.
Media Contact:Ran MullinsCo-Founder and Chief Executive Officer407533@email4pr.com 917-740-6648
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