Many advisors are missing the chance to engage multiple generations when discussing family wealth issues, according to a survey released today by MFS Investment Management.

Nearly 70 percent of advisors say baby boomer clients don't include their adult children in family finance discussions. Furthermore, 60 percent of investors say their financial advisor has never discussed family wealth management with them, according to the survey.

“Only 14 percent of all investors say they are interested in family wealth management discussions with an advisor," said William Finnegan, senior managing director of global retail marketing for MFS. "Alarmingly, more than half (54 percent) say they are not interested."

The survey found that only a third of advisors have fully engaged all of their boomer clients in discussions regarding family wealth planning. And according to advisors, 68 percent of their boomer clients do not include their children in family wealth discussions.

“We've stigmatized talking about money, like it was religion or politics," said Finnegan. “Advisors willing to reach out to the adult children of their clients can play a key role in guiding multiple generations of investors and protecting a family's legacy of financial health."

According to the survey, 75 percent of parents say their children have never met their financial advisor. Yet 60 percent of parents feel they've done a good job educating their children about investing.

Of the investors who have discussed family wealth planning with their advisor, 94 percent found the conversation to be at least somewhat helpful, while 65 percent found it very or extremely helpful.

"Clearly investors see the benefit of the conversation when advisors are willing to talk about the bigger family wealth picture," added Finnegan. "Beyond the conversation, advisors need to reconsider how they engage with multiple generations in a family, especially as younger investors accumulate wealth on their own."

Research Collaborative sponsored the online survey in April of 1,033 individual U.S. investors with $100,000 or more in household investable (non-retirement) assets and 588 licensed U.S. financial advisors with $500,000 or more in annual mutual fund sales.