IKE THE REST OF AMERICA , THE ADVISORY PROFESSION IS experiencing a changing of the guard as many among the first generation of advisors exits into retirement and their successors take over . What that next generation does is a story remaining to be written .

This month ’ s cover feature on Young Advisors To Watch , which we compile every May , provides a glimpse of what those future chapters will look like . Some young advisors will seek to help their high-earning contemporaries build wealth while many others are more interested in empowering middle-class folks and helping them find their way off the weekly treadmill when they feel there is no way to get ahead or achieve financial independence .

Several young advisors pointedly note that serving wealthy , older males who already had a net worth of several million was not rewarding to them , which is understandable . One might also question the widespread assumption that the current generation of boomers will really leave the projected $ 80 trillion to their heirs , as the financial services business currently anticipates .

Laura Carstensen ’ s book A Long Bright Future raises the prospect that today ’ s 65-year-olds could live to their late 90s or longer , and it ’ s not a certainty that affluent retirees with even $ 5 million today will be able to leave these big legacies behind . Increasingly , retirement is looking like a new front in the inequality phenomenon . Fortunately , there are a growing number of young advisors who want to help the middle class .

Several young advisors pointedly note that serving wealthy , older males who already had a net worth of several million was not rewarding to them , which is understandable .

If there is a glimmer of hope here , it ’ s that labor force participation today is surging among Americans in their 70s and 80s . The flexible U . S . economy is running low on workers , and many retirees are running low on savings or getting bored after a few years of inactivity and isolation . For myriad reasons , the concept of retirement that existed in the post-World War II era is largely a relic .

One of the privileges of editing Financial Advisor is working with some of the serious thinkers on these topics . And this month we ’ re lucky to publish an article entitled “ All-Cap Withdrawal Magic ” by Bill Bengen , father of the 4 % rule and a contributor to this periodical since its early days . Bengen is one more example of someone who has remained vital for years after retiring .

His article sheds some light on what many advisors have experienced — namely , that the 4 % rule works and most retirees who stretched the rule a little over the last 90 years have been fine . Needless to say , past results are no guarantee of future outcomes . And counting on the stock market to bail out clients and advisors is a dicey proposition .

Evan Simonoff

Email me at esimonoff @ famagazine . com with your opinion .

8 | FINANCIAL ADVISOR MAGAZINE | MAY 2024 WWW . FA-MAG . COM