Chartered Financial Planner Jason Butler is pioneering a US system in the UK which he says is a bridge between Financial Planning and estate planning.

Mr Butler was speaking exclusively to Financial Planning Today as he outlined the new venture, called Generation Next, which specialises in Heritage Design.

Potential clients who visit the firm’s website are directed to questionnaires which rank their financial and legacy priorities and are followed up with a consultation call with Mr Butler.

The website poses the question: “Are you confident that your children and grandchildren are prepared to receive, manage and grow their future inheritances?”

He said that many wealthy families were not always conscious of the fact that they were wealthy, but were when various business interests, property and investments were factored in and he emphasised the service was not just for the “super-rich”.

He told Financial Planning Today: “I can help prepare people for the money that is going to come to them.

“It is the missing link between the Financial Planning Community and the estate planning community and there are very few people in the country that are doing this.”

In fact, Mr Butler says he is the only person in the UK offering the Heritage Design service, which is accredited in the US and has a “proven 20-year track record”.

Mr Butler said he currently has to travel to the US every quarter “not only for training, but for accreditation” in the process.

The Chartered Financial Planner said he was learning and “Anglicising” the method and that he had ‘tweaked’ it for the UK market.

He said the scheme would help families to communicate and prepare for inheritances and “is not only about making money, but making a difference”.

Mr Butler believes helping wealthy families to organise their affairs could free them up to “do a lot for society, like philanthropy”.

Mr Butler said he was not currently operating the service on a large scale and was restricting it to “10 to 12 families a year”, but he said the scheme could “have a big social impact”.