Your Wealth Will Outlive You!

For many years, financial planning has focused heavily on one question:

Will I have enough?

Enough to retire, maintain my lifestyle, deal with the unexpected and enjoy the years ahead without constantly worrying about money.

But once people have built financial security, another question becomes increasingly important:

What eventually happens to everything I have built?

This is where financial planning starts becoming about much more than investment returns.

New Zealand's Great Wealth Transfer

New Zealand is approaching what is increasingly being called the Great Wealth Transfer — potentially the largest transfer of wealth in our country's history.

The JBWere New Zealand Bequest Report 2025 estimates that around $1.6 trillion of wealth could be transferred in New Zealand by 2050.

Other estimates vary. Research cited by ANZ has estimated approximately $1.11 trillion could transfer from New Zealanders aged over 55 during a 20-year period.

Whichever estimate proves closest, the message is clear:

An extraordinary amount of New Zealand's wealth is going to change hands.

Much of it isn't sitting in bank accounts. It has been accumulated through homes, farms, businesses, investment portfolios, KiwiSaver, commercial property and other assets.

People born before 1966 are estimated to hold around 60% of New Zealand's individual net wealth.

So this won't simply be a transfer of money. It will be a transfer of assets, responsibility and decision-making.

Who — or what — comes next?

When we hear terms such as estate planning or wealth transfer, it's easy to focus on who receives what.

But perhaps there is a better question:

What would you actually like your wealth to achieve?

For some, providing financial security for family will be the priority. For others, it could include supporting extended family, helping people who have played an important part in their lives, or contributing to a church, charity, community organisation or cause they care deeply about.

For many people, it will be a combination.

Legacy planning should therefore be about more than dividing assets. It's about deciding what you want the wealth you've spent a lifetime creating to accomplish.

But what if you don't know what the future holds?

This is something we often find when talking with people about their future. It's not that they don't want to make decisions — often they simply don't know what the future looks like.

How long will I live? What might healthcare or aged-care cost? What happens if markets fall? Will I need to help someone financially? How much can I safely spend? And how much should I keep before giving anything away?

Uncertainty can make doing nothing feel like the safest option.

InvestNow's 2025 Retirement Readiness Index found 34% of respondents didn't have a retirement plan, while its overall retirement-planning confidence index was only 50.4%. Financial circumstances, the unpredictable economy and uncertainty about financial markets were among the reasons for lacking confidence.

Research from Te Ara Ahunga Ora Retirement Commission also found many older New Zealanders with financial assets were reluctant to draw on their savings.

It highlights a difficult balance:

We don't want to spend too much and risk running out — but we also don't want to spend too little and unnecessarily restrict the life we could be enjoying.

International research shows similar hesitation around estate planning. A 2026 TIAA Institute study found people identified as procrastinators were 9.3 percentage points less likely to have a will or trust.

This is where good financial planning can make a real difference.

A financial plan isn't about predicting the future perfectly. Nobody can do that.

It's about modelling different possibilities, understanding what you are likely to need, allowing for uncertainty and giving you the confidence to make decisions today.

Sometimes that may show you need to retain more than expected. Equally, it might show that you have more than enough and could start using some of your wealth to make a difference today.

Sometimes the most valuable outcome of financial planning isn't finding a better investment.

It's having the confidence to make a decision.

The transfer has already started

We often think of wealth transfer as something that happens after someone dies.

Increasingly, that's not the case.

Across New Zealand, people are helping others with house deposits, education and getting established financially. Business owners are considering succession. Farming families are thinking about future ownership of land. Others are supporting charities, churches and community organisations.

The Great Wealth Transfer isn't something that's coming one day.

It is already happening.

Which raises an interesting question:

Should all of your wealth transfer after you're gone, or would you like some of it to make a difference while you're still here to see it?

There can be something particularly rewarding about seeing the difference your money makes.

Of course, generosity must be balanced against your own financial security. Before transferring significant wealth, you need to understand what you may require for the rest of your life.

Equal isn't always the same as fair

Transferring wealth can also involve difficult decisions.

Should every beneficiary receive exactly the same amount? How should a family business or farm be treated when one person has been actively involved? How do you divide property that can't easily be split? Should some assets transfer during your lifetime?

There isn't a universal right answer.

That's why good legacy planning begins with understanding your intentions and values, rather than immediately reaching for a financial product or legal structure.

Transferring wealth is different from transferring wisdom

Preparing assets for transfer is one thing.

Preparing the people who will eventually become responsible for them is another.

Imagine suddenly becoming responsible for a significant investment portfolio, farm, business or property portfolio without having been involved in the financial decisions surrounding it.

The asset might transfer overnight.

The knowledge required to manage it doesn't.

Financial knowledge, good decision-making and understanding how wealth was created can potentially be as valuable as the wealth itself.

That might mean gradually involving future beneficiaries in financial conversations, explaining investments and sharing the thinking behind important decisions.

Wealth can leave a community legacy too

The Great Wealth Transfer also presents an extraordinary opportunity for New Zealand communities.

Public Trust and JBWere report that currently only around 1.3% of inheritances in New Zealand go to charities.

Against potentially $1.6 trillion changing hands, even a relatively small increase could make an enormous difference.

Charities, sporting organisations, churches, scholarships, environmental initiatives and community projects can all form part of someone's legacy.

There is no single correct approach.

What matters is that it is intentional.

Start the conversation

Ultimately, this isn't really a story about $1.6 trillion.

It's about homes, farms, businesses, investments, families, friendships and communities — and people deciding what should happen to the things they've spent their lives building.

Your accountant, lawyer and financial adviser may each have an important role to play. Legal structures, tax and investments matter.

But perhaps the best place to start is with a much simpler question:

If the wealth you've spent your lifetime building could tell a story about what mattered to you, what would you want that story to say?

Because good financial planning isn't only about how much wealth you accumulate.

It's also about what that wealth allows you to do — during your lifetime and beyond it.