Financial advice for building and passing on generational wealth

That is a different problem, and most of the advice on offer is still answering the old one. At this stage the investment return matters less than the structure, the tax on transfer, and the sequence — and less still than the least technical question of all: whether the next generation is ready for what is coming.

We call the person at this stage the Legacy Architect. The name is only shorthand. The situation is real — enough wealth that the work is now about transfer, protection and continuity, usually held across companies, trusts, property and superannuation that were each set up years ago for a reason, and have never been looked at as a single picture.

What do families usually want at this stage?

Most want three things. That the wealth reaches the people they choose, with as little lost to tax and dispute as the law allows. That it strengthens the next generation rather than weakening them. And that the structures they built are simple enough for someone else to understand and run when they are no longer the one running them.

The lifestyle question does not disappear here — it changes shape. Day-to-day, most people at this stage are comfortable; the money is no longer the constraint on the week. So the conversation moves outward and forward: grandchildren's education, the family home staying in the family, the capacity to help an adult child into their first home without creating dependence, a considered approach to giving. These are concrete wants, not aspirations, and each one has a structural answer that is easier to build early than late.

What usually goes wrong with generational wealth?

Wealth built in one generation is often gone by the third — the shirtsleeves-to-shirtsleeves pattern. It rarely fails for investment reasons. It fails on the transfer: tax that was avoidable, disputes between beneficiaries, structures nobody else understands, and heirs who were never prepared for the responsibility that arrived with the money.

The fears at this stage are specific, and they are usually about people rather than markets. An estate plan that quietly contradicts a shareholders' agreement. A will that leaves particular assets to particular children and creates a sense of unfairness that outlives everyone involved. Superannuation paid to an adult child and taxed more heavily than it needed to be. A parent who is the single point of failure — the only person who understands how the whole thing fits together — with no plan for the day they are not there to explain it. None of these are exotic. They are the ordinary ways good wealth comes apart.

What is your wealth actually structured to do right now?

Most wealth at this level is structured for accumulation, because that is the problem it was built to solve. The gap is the distance between what your current structure would do on your death or incapacity and what you would actually choose. A Wealth Gap Conversation is where we map that distance, before anything forces the question.

In practice the review is unglamorous and revealing. Who controls each entity if you are gone tomorrow, or simply unable to act. Which assets would trigger tax on transfer and which would not. Whether your will, your trust deeds and your superannuation death benefit nominations agree with each other, or quietly pull in different directions. Most people at this stage have never seen all of it on one page, because each piece was advised on separately, by a different person, in a different year.

How do you approach succession and legacy planning?

We use the G.A.P. Method™ — Goals, Architecture, Pathway. At this stage the weight sits on Pathway: the order and timing of the handover. Goals define who and what the wealth is ultimately for. Architecture aligns the entities, the estate plan and the tax position. Pathway sets out how control actually transfers, and when.

The emphasis is deliberate. For someone still building, the hard part is the architecture; for someone handing over, the architecture is largely built and the hard part is the sequence — what moves first, what is explained to whom, and how control is released in stages rather than all at once on a single unfortunate day. We coordinate with your solicitor and your accountant rather than replacing them. What is usually missing is not another specialist. It is one person holding the whole view and making sure the specialists are building the same thing. You can read how the method works on our G.A.P. Method page.

How do I pass wealth to my children tax-effectively?

There is no single lever. The tax outcome depends on the form the wealth is in, who receives it, and when. Superannuation paid to a non-dependant, such as an adult child, is taxed on its taxable component, where the same benefit paid to a dependant generally is not. Assets held through a trust pass differently from assets held in your own name. And a testamentary trust created through your will can change both the tax and the protection outcome for the next generation.

This is structural work with long lead times, which is the entire reason to look at it early. Most of the meaningful decisions — which entity holds what, how superannuation is directed on death, whether a testamentary trust belongs in the will — are made well before they take effect, and are difficult or impossible to change once circumstances have moved.

What is family governance, and does a family need it?

Family governance is the set of understandings a family reaches about how its wealth is used, decided on and passed down — who is involved, how decisions get made, and how the next generation learns to handle what is coming. It is the least technical part of the work and, more often than not, the part that decides whether the wealth survives.

It does not have to be formal. For some families it is a written charter and an annual meeting; for others it is simply a habit of talking about money openly rather than leaving it to be discovered in a solicitor's office. The common thread is preparation. Wealth that arrives unannounced, to people who were never brought into the conversation, is the version most likely to be lost or resented. The alternative is not complicated, but it does take time — which is another argument for starting while there is plenty of it.

When should succession planning start?

Earlier than it usually does. As a general rule, while the person holding the wealth is comfortably in control of it — not once age, health or a sudden event has forced the issue. Succession is a process, not a document: structures take years to align, tax positions take years to unwind, and the next generation takes longer than either to prepare.

The worst time to design a handover is under pressure, and the most expensive version is the one that never happened at all. There is one timing point specific to the current environment. The capital gains tax rules change from 1 July 2027, and for larger estates the treatment of a gain can depend on when it accrues — which makes sequencing a live consideration rather than a purely administrative one for families contemplating a significant transfer or sale near that date.

Who this is not for

We are not the right fit for everyone, and it is fairer to say so plainly. This is not a service for someone who wants a single transaction or a product recommendation — if what you need is one legal document drafted, a solicitor is the right first call, not us. It is not for a family unwilling to involve the next generation at all, because governance is most of the work and it cannot be done to people who are kept outside it. And we are not an estate-law firm; we do not draft wills or provide legal advice. We coordinate the people who do, and we hold the financial and family picture they each see only part of.

How do you work with families on legacy?

We hold the personal, whole-of-family view and coordinate your solicitor, accountant and any existing investment adviser, so that the estate plan, the structures and the tax position are building toward the same outcome rather than three separate ones. Fees are agreed with you before any work begins and may be fixed, hourly or portfolio-based; where life insurance is recommended, the insurer pays us a commission at no extra cost to you, always disclosed — full details are in our Financial Services Guide.

Most families at this stage already have capable advisers. What is usually missing is the person connecting them — and the conversation about what all of it is finally for.

Start a Wealth Gap Conversation.