The challenges faced by Australians in the past 12 months have shifted the way we think about our finances. With concerns on the cost of living, many of us are thinking about how we can best secure our futures not only for ourselves, but for the next generation.
In February this year, we attended the AMP Advice Conference in Adelaide, where the key focus of the event centred on the new era of advice - where the community collaborated to try to answer these growing concerns faced.
Fidelity Sales Manager Lauren Jackson joined a panel, alongside AMP CEO Alexis George, where they discussed managing the inter-generational wealth transfer.
Getting in early
As the saying goes, knowledge is power. One key concern raised was around education and why we are waiting until retirement age to make decisions around our financial futures. Lauren and Alexis both stressed the importance of financial literature for younger generations, to start as early as primary school. Starting early would help the next generation understand the importance of securing a stable financial future and potentially help reduce the burden of financial stresses in later years.
Implementing this requires conversations now; asking the next generation questions around their future goals and how financial stability impacts the path to achieving them. Alexis touched on how she instils these learnings in her own children even though it’s not something they may use now. The idea is that when they are her age, they will be better placed to make financial decisions.
Managing the great wealth transfer
Australia is expecting to see $3.5 trillion pass from the older generations to younger generations this decade, a phenomenon known as ‘The Great Wealth Transfer’. During the panel, Lauren drew upon some surprising findings from our report which discusses this transfer, titled “Rainbows end”. We found that while nearly 2 in 3 Australians intend to leave a bequest, less than 1 in 10 have a comprehensive plan to do so.
This report was created to help financial advisers develop investment approaches that meet the needs of retirees to be able to support their bequest objectives, and investigates attitudes towards the transfer of wealth to younger generations.
For more information about how you can help your clients and lead discussions on managing the great wealth transfer, read our full report.
