Edward Jones CEO Penny Pennington says 'giving while living' is becoming a more popular way to pass on family wealth.
In an interview with Fortune, Pennington said a growing number of Edward Jones' 9 million clients are choosing to distribute portions of their estate before they die. She said families are doing it for both 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,' Pennington said.
One example she gave involves families with multiple children, where one or more are financially stable but another has spendthrift tendencies. In that case, Pennington said parents may prefer to give a smaller amount while they are still alive, encourage wiser use of the money and potentially adjust the inheritance later.
Pennington also said some families use the approach to support a child pursuing a meaningful career that does not pay very much, or to help younger relatives with a down payment in a tight housing market.
She said another reason for the trend is simple enjoyment. Parents and grandparents can see the effect of their gifts while they are still alive.
But the process is not always easy. 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.
Pennington said succession planning is difficult because money carries strong emotions and each generation is shaped by different historical experiences.
She pointed to people who grew up during the Great Depression as an example of a generation defined by scarcity and a reluctance to spend.
Pennington also said clients increasingly want help from a financial advisor, not only for investing but for context and support around life decisions tied to money.
Edward Jones is also using AI to sort through client conversations. Pennington said the firm has used AI to identify common financial scenarios and better understand emotions tied to those situations.
'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.
The numbers come first. A company that manages wealth is telling clients to move capital sooner, not later, because families want control, clarity and visible impact. That is a market response to the realities of inheritance, not a sermon from Washington.
Capital rewards clear rules, and families often want the same thing. The taxpayer is not in this story, but the principle is familiar: when money is handled with discipline and intent, outcomes improve and uncertainty falls.
