Building a legacy that works across generations
What is real wealth? The amount of money and assets you accumulate? Or is it something more meaningful, something more valuable? Something that lasts.
For South African families navigating an increasingly complex financial landscape, the challenge isn’t just growing wealth but ensuring it serves multiple generations effectively, both locally and internationally.
The challenge of intergenerational wealth transfer
Roughly 70% of wealth transfers globally don't make it past the second generation - not because of bad investments, but poor planning and families not being on the same page about money.
According to a 2024 study by wealth consultancy Williams Group, only 30% of families successfully navigate the transition of wealth to the second generation, with that number dropping to just 12% by the third generation. What separates successful families? Structured planning. Families with documented investment strategies and clear succession plans preserve wealth across generations, turning financial success into something that endures.
Estate planning: protecting your legacy from unnecessary tax
Estate planning is critical yet often overlooked. Without proper planning, significant wealth goes to SARS instead of your beneficiaries. In South Africa, estate duty is levied at 20% on the first R30 million of your estate above the R3.5 million abatement, and 25% on anything beyond R30 million. For an estate valued at R20 million, this could mean R3.3 million going to SARS - money that could have stayed within your family. Capital gains tax adds another layer, with only R300,000 excluded at death. Effective strategies include optimising spousal bequests, establishing trusts where appropriate, and ensuring life policies are correctly structured to minimise tax liability.
Making wealth management a family strategy
Modern wealth management requires viewing financial planning as a family mission rather than an individual pursuit. That means thinking beyond your own lifetime and considering how your assets will serve your children, grandchildren, and the generations after them. South African families face unique considerations: currency volatility, regulatory changes, and evolving tax legislation make local-only strategies risky. Having offshore wealth provides currency hedging, geographic risk mitigation, and access to markets that may outperform when South African assets underperform. Standard Bank Private Banking's INN8 platform seamlessly connects local and international portfolios with family pricing benefits that make sophisticated wealth management accessible.
Building the foundation: next-gen wealth tools
Tax-free savings accounts are powerful yet underutilised. Parents opening TFSAs for two children at birth and contributing the maximum R36,000 annually would create portfolios exceeding R1.4 million each by age 18 - entirely tax-free.
With some private school fees exceeding R200,000 per year and university costs rising faster than inflation, structured education investment accounts prevent forced sales of long-term investments. Standard Bank's solutions match your investment timeline with educational milestones.
Currency diversification for international education
If your children are studying overseas, having offshore investments in the same currencies where you're paying tuition eliminates exchange rate surprises. With international tuition ranging from £10,000 to £38,000 in the UK and $25,000 to $60,000 in the US per year - and with the impact of rand exchange rates - proper currency planning can save hundreds of thousands of rands over a degree. Standard Bank's foreign exchange and international payment solutions provide competitive FX rates and streamlined transfers, ensuring education funding reaches its destination without unnecessary currency losses.
Preparing for retirement without compromising legacy
Balancing retirement needs with legacy requires addressing three critical trends: increasing longevity, healthcare cost inflation, and dependency risk. Life expectancy in South Africa now stands at 64 years for males and 69 for females, meaning retirement could last 20 to 30 years. Healthcare inflation compounds the challenge: medical aid contributions increased 10.5% in 2025, healthcare services rose 6.1% - both significantly above general inflation of 4.4%. Over a 25-year retirement, these above-inflation increases can devastate well-planned portfolios. For breadwinners supporting extended families, dependency risk adds complexity. If you're supporting ageing parents, children completing education, or relatives, your planning must account for multiple dependents across generations. Standard Bank Private’s wealth planning platforms let you model scenarios like above-inflation medical costs or supporting additional dependents, transforming planning from guesswork into a data-driven strategy.
Getting started: practical steps
Successful families treat wealth management as an ongoing conversation backed by professional guidance. Here are a few practical things you can do to manage generational wealth:
- Review your family wealth plan with your Standard Bank Private Banker, covering estate planning, offshore diversification, education funding, and retirement modelling.
- Activate your INN8 access for consolidated holdings views. Assess portfolio diversification and set up next-generation structures: TFSAs for children and grandchildren, education investment accounts, and estate planning reviews.
Standard Bank Private's integrated approach helps families navigate complexity while creating financial legacies that empower the next generation. Contact your banker or advisor today to begin building your family's enduring legacy.