As she ushered in 2025, Mia didn’t know what to do. Her husband had recently suffered a stroke that created long-term care and financial implications for them both. With his advanced degrees and experience, he’d always handled the finances, and in the fallout, it became clear that she and her current wealth management team weren’t working together effectively.

She needed help sorting through the complex situation, but they weren’t giving her the advice she needed. When she needed quick answers, they didn’t respond to phone calls. When she needed long-term expenses carefully thought through, they were rushed. She didn’t feel valued.

“In today’s world, service is a word people use, but in reality, they give you the run around and don’t actually provide great service,” said Mia. “It became clear they didn’t understand my needs.”

She called a friend who had recently retired from the financial services industry and asked his advice. He introduced her to Patrick Robert, a CFPâ and independent generational wealth specialist.

A generational wealth specialist is a financial expert who focuses on meeting all the needs of high-net-worth and ultra-high-net-worth families. Using a holistic approach, they tie together every independent financial and legal piece of clients’ lives.

By signing with Patrick and moving to a new firm that he partners with, Mia now receives both the new team’s help and Patrick’s services, with her fees matched. She continues to work with a skilled asset manager and enjoys the added benefit of independent, unbiased advice without paying more. 

“I don’t know how to sing his praises in enough ways. Patrick is a kind, wonderful, caring person who provides amazing service,” said Mia. “He’s taken on my daughters, too, and they’re like ‘What did we ever do without Patrick?’ He comes to my house. My husband is now wheelchair-bound from the stroke, so I don’t have to worry about taking him out – they come to us. Nothing slips through the cracks. Everything is taken care of.”

Generational wealth specialists are hired by asset managers to care for particularly valued, yet complex, clients. They work in tandem so that the asset manager can focus on investment execution while the generational wealth specialist focuses on the client's varying needs. These areas vary from client to client, but typically include independent and unbiased investment advice, estate planning, serving as trust protector, helping to navigate medical insurance changes, preparing future generations, and a plethora of other more varied concerns.

Robert says serving as trust protector and estate planning are big ones for him. “Clients are excited to learn that I can serve as a trust protector for them and help ensure their loved ones are taken care of in the ways intended,” said Robert. “With estate planning, we found at least one thing that needed to change or that the clients hadn’t thought of yet in every single estate plan I’ve reviewed.”

While Robert’s model isn’t completely unique, it is rare, says Joe Morris, a retired Senior Vice President and Private Client Advisor with Commerce Bank. “I think his business model makes a lot of sense in this day and age for people,” said Morris. “People are so fee conscious nowadays. What differentiates now is service.”

“All the big financial service providers offer the same stocks and bonds now. It used to be that investments drove the bus in the wealth management world, but I think over the last 10 years, it’s been service. Patrick can spend the time talking to people about what their goals are and come up with new ways to reach them,” Morris continued.

Robert prides himself on offering an elite level of service that his clients haven’t received before, while simplifying their financial life to a single contact and phone call. No matter what they need, he says, his clients know they can call him, and he will ensure it gets done.

It’s what Joe Morris sees when examining the business. “Patrick has a lot of passion for what he does. He really wants to help people and provide the service that they're not seeing or receiving as much from large financial institutions in today's world.”