Peter Štadler’s reflection on the Global Wealth Management Summit, 5–6 November 2025

Nextgen: The generation quietly rewriting the rules of wealth

Nearly 70% of NextGen heirs replace their family adviser the moment they step into responsibility. It is one of the most revealing statistics in global wealth management — and a sign that something far deeper is shifting beneath the surface.

NextGen is not rejecting advice. They are rejecting an outdated relationship with wealth.

They are stepping into leadership earlier than any generation before them — and they are not waiting for the formal handover. They are asking different questions, sharper and more fundamental than before: What does our wealth stand for? What is its purpose? What legacy are we building?

For them, traditional metrics are no longer enough. Portfolio performance matters — but only in the context of values, identity and long-term direction. Alignment is the new performance.

This is why the adviser-replacement rate is so high. Not because of results — but because of communication, trust, cultural fit, and the adviser’s ability to speak the language of two generations at once.

NextGen does not want to inherit assets. They want to inherit a mission.

Wealth, for them, is not a static pool. It is a project — dynamic, ethical, intentional. And this fundamentally transforms the role of any adviser or family office.

To serve a modern family means guiding two time horizons, two mindsets and two visions. It means understanding how the previous generation built the wealth — while helping the next generation understand why it should be preserved.

Families that navigate this transition well share the same discipline: they build unity before ownership, values before governance, identity before inheritance. This is real succession. Not a legal process — a human one.

NextGen is not asking for revolution. They are asking for coherence — and a structure that reflects who they are.

Peter Štadler
CEO, Wealth Effect Management