‘Giving while living’ has become a popular trend for passing on family wealth, says Edward Jones CEO

Many older people save their money in order to leave something to their families when they pass on. That is not always the best approach, says Penny Pennington, the CEO of Wealth management firm Edward Jones, who suggests that parents and others explore what she calls “giving while living”—distributing portions of their estate to younger relatives before they die.

In an interview with Fortune, Pennington explained that a growing number of Edward Jones’ 9 million clients are embracing “giving while living” both for personal and practical reasons.

“They are setting up gifting arrangements and trusts because they want to achieve two things: they want to enjoy seeing their impact, and they want to test whether there is a values alignment across the younger generations to see if family values are transferring successfully,” said Pennington.

When it comes to “values alignment,” Pennington gave the example of families with multiple children, where one or more of the kids are successful and financially stable, but where one child struggles with spendthrift tendencies.

In many such cases, Pennington says, parents will want to give each child an equal inheritance to be fair, but also worry about how the struggling child will fare upon receiving a sudden inheritance. A good solution, she says, is to provide a smaller amount while they are still alive and encourage them to use it wisely, and potentially adjust the inheritance accordingly.

This is just one example of how “giving while living” can work in practice. Others can involve providing financial stability for a child who has pursued a meaningful and fulfilling career that does not pay very much, or assisting younger family members with a down payment in a tight housing market.

While such gifts can help to reinforce certain values, Pennington says that is not the only reason more people are choosing not to wait until after they’re gone to give away money. Another big reason she says is the simple joy that can come with helping people you love.

While there are good reasons to explore “giving while living,” that does not mean it’s easy in practice. According to a research study commissioned by Edward Jones, more than a third of Americans do not plan to talk about transfer of wealth with their families, and even fewer say they are confident about arranging an inheritance.

Succession plans are easy in theory—but actually talking about them is challenging because of the strong emotions that can come with money.

Talking about money in the AI age

“We know that every generation is shaped by systemic, historical events that define their relationship with money,” says Pennington, noting the example of those who grew up in the Great Depression—an experience marked by constant scarcity, and a total unwillingness to spend money.

Each subsequent generation, meanwhile, has developed their own views on how to talk about money, and how to spend it. What has not changed, though, are feelings of anxiety or uncertainty related to money, which can complicate making good decisions.

Pennington, unsurprisingly, is a strong advocate for speaking with a financial advisor, who she says can provide not just guidance on investing, but helpful context and support on how financial decisions can affect your life.

While the rise of AI financial tools would seem to threaten advisory businesses like Edward Jones, there is evidence this is not the case. A Fortune report earlier this year found that, while many people are turning to AI with financial questions, there is still a strong desire to discuss what they find with a human.

Firms like Edward Jones and LPL Financial, meanwhile, are rapidly adopting AI tools to gain financial insights, but also to better understand and communicate with their customers.

According to Pennington, Edward Jones has been using AI to better identify common financial scenarios their clients encounter, and gain new insight into both their experience and the emotions associated with it.

“For example, we’ve had 700 conversations in the last month about emergency pet surgery, and 3,000 conversations about a special RV trip a client has been saving for and is about to take,” she said, adding that Edward Jones can securely store every conversation to better understand how their financial picture is evolving.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

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