Inter-generational Wealth | Investing as a Family

Every family dreams of living a good life in relative financial comfort and passing on a healthy estate to future generations. Most of us will have felt what it’s like to face financial challenges, and this feeling drives the desire to set up better foundations for our families, and future generations. But how does one go about this in the modern age?

The traditional approach used to be that you work hard, buy your own home, work even harder, pay off the mortgage, and have this asset to pass onto your family. For many, however, with real estate prices skyrocketing, younger generations finding it more challenging to get in the housing ladder and the property market being much less certain than it used to be, this strategy is not as attractive as it was 30, or even 10 years ago.

Developing Wealth Takes Family Planning

While it used to be that grandparents and parents felt it was their responsibility to look after their financial planning individually, the truth today is that you can do far better by working together. This doesn’t mean pooling your money and setting up an investment portfolio together, but it’s wise to discuss your financial plans and goals. You can then look at the smartest options for your family, rather than everyone trying to re-create the wheel on their own.

Set Goals as a Family

What one generation wants to give the next may not match what the next has in mind. It’s worth sitting down across the generations to explore what your long term investment plans are together and what you want to leave behind when your wealth passes to the next generation. We would all like to leave as much as possible to future generations, but being realistic with what may be passed down can help to avoid any nasty surprises.

Connecting together helps you focus on your goals and allows you to explore ideas that you may not have considered alone. It also helps you get to know your family members’ ambitions and makes you all feel closer for working together to support these.

Keeping your investments under one roof

Not all families will have someone with financial planning know-how, and you may want to engage a professional to help you plan and manage your investments. Working with the same professional across the generations can be a huge benefit. Again, there is not necessarily a need to share all of your financial information with one another, but working with a mutual party means that you can discuss your needs and the goals of your family and form a plan that meets both.

When it comes to managing your investment portfolio, working with one professional across the family also enables a wider viewpoint across the funds, allowing you to have shared portfolios and making it easier to pass ownership when it’s time for one generation to pass on their wealth to the next.

Educate future family members

Talking about your financial goals and financial planning strategies as a family, with both the young ones and the not-so-young ones, can set your family up to thrive. While financial literacy is not traditionally taught in schools, the families who invest time in learning together and discussing finances together can help create financially comfortable future generations.

Wise Investment walks this walk. Our team of financial planners can help you set up inter-generational wealth across your family, through financial planning and investment strategies that meet your collective and individual goals, at any stage in your life.

Contact us today to discuss how we can assist with your family’s financial future.

This is the final part of a series of 5. If you missed any of the earlier articles please use the links below:

Inter-generational Wealth in the Modern Age

Inter-generational Wealth | Grandparents Perspective

Inter-generational Wealth | Parents Perspective

Inter-generational Wealth | Grandchildren Perspective

Important information

The above information is for educational purposes only and is not a personal recommendation or investment advice. If you’re unsure about the suitability of a particular investment, you should speak to an authorised financial adviser. As you probably know, the value of investments and the income from them can go down as well as up, so you might not get back the amount you invest.

We’ve made every effort to ensure the information above is accurate. Content is based on our understanding of current law and practice at the time of writing, which could alter as a result of future legislation. Tax treatment may depend on your individual circumstances. This article is aimed at UK residents.

Wise Investment is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. Our FCA number is 230553. Registered Office: The Great Barn, Chalford Park Barns, Oxford Road, Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire, OX7 5QR. Registered in England 4970458.