The $124T Great Wealth Transfer Is Coming. So Are the Hackers

The article warns that the upcoming $124 trillion “Great Wealth Transfer” over the next two decades will create heightened cyber risk and reputational exposure for wealth managers, custodians and advisors. Wells Fargo’s Lorne Maltenfort urges firms to treat privacy and security as enterprise risks—stress‑testing systems, segmenting trustee duties, using revocable trusts and donor‑advised funds—to limit public records and credential‑sharing vulnerabilities. The piece highlights tensions between advisor demand for visibility across client retirement assets and custodial limits on access (including resistance to direct advisor access to 401(k) plans), suggesting operational and regulatory changes could follow as firms tighten controls. Market impact: stronger privacy controls and due‑diligence costs for advisory platforms, potential restrictions on third‑party integrations, and reputational risk that could affect client retention and flows into wealth‑management products.