By Robyn Edwards
Proper wealth management is the key to creating generational wealth and securing a legacy for your family.
Simply put, “generational wealth” is an asset passed down from one generation to the next. An asset not intended to be spent during retirement and is meant to be the steppingstone to security for the generations after you thus creating a financial legacy.
Whilst so many FSPs are trying to make this idea more accessible these days, the commonly accepted association when the man on the street thinks about generational wealth and wealth management is that these are notions for the Ruperts or the Motsepes and not necessarily for him as he gets by month to month.
Make wealth management relevant
More so now than ever whilst consumer pockets are under pressure, it is important to provide awareness, education & tools about how to start or how to maintain this security for your loved ones. Stats SA’s latest reporting has noted South Africa’s unemployment rate at 32.5% by the end of the last quarter of 2020, a jump from 30% which is an alarmingly high number that impacts many South Africans. How does one breach the immediate needs that are top of mind for consumers to bring them visibility of the long-term need that will not impact their lifetime?
Breaching this immediate need requires relevance. Financial advice as a concept needs to bring this issue of generational wealth closer to home. The advice needs to reflect on real scenarios in our communities that have enabled the first generations that we know to build the blocks of a financially secure life for the generations that come after them. Financial advice needs to extend beyond the needs analysis and to the translation of this concept via the popular family in the township who started their butchery with 5 cows and now have 6 branches across the city each managed by a son in that family. Financial advice needs to extend beyond the 1 funeral plan sales process to the growth earned from an investment plan that will allow you to purchase the rental property that you can leave behind for your son. The financial advisor near me is the one who understands me, and my community so why shouldn’t he or she understand my version of wealth management?
Be financially literate
Financial literacy levels in South Africa need to improve. We need to start talking more to our children about saving, investing & wealth management in order to pass on more than just grief and sadness when we pass away.
Financial literacy is however not limited to a Motsepe or a Rupert, the small steps we take from the R150 per month on a tax free savings plan to the R5000 lump sum you saved over 2 years put into a unit trust can make the difference in what you leave behind. In South Africa, we need to break the frequent sad cycle of leaving behind nothing but debt.
Robyn Edwards is a marketing manager at Momentum Metropolitan Holdings.
PERSONAL FINANCE