Lifeplan launches NextGen Investments

Lifeplan Funds Management has launched NextGen Investments, a platform-style investment product, to take advantage of the trillion-dollar investment market that will emerge in the next two decades as the 65 years and older generation, the ‘Builder Generation’, transfer their assets to their descendants.

According to estimates and Lifeplan’s research, the ‘Builder Generation’ will transfer $600 billion in assets to their descendent beneficiaries in the coming years, through to the year 2021. This will be added to the $600 billion of assets already owned by the current generation.

The general manager of strategic development at Lifeplan, Matt Walsh, said there was a gap in plans for financial advisers to tap into that growing market, hence the launch of NextGen Investments.

“When Lifeplan looked at this unique gap in the market, our approach was to design something that advisers could use straight out of the box,” he said

“The strategy for advisers É is to plan now to capture a slice of those assets in an estate planning vehicle before their ageing client base passes on.”

Walsh said investors would also gain the advantage of capturing the descendent beneficiaries as clients before the previous generation had passed away. Most financial advisers find it difficult to approach beneficiaries after the death of their parents.

NextGen Investments will give investors total control over the distribution of their funds, even after they pass away. It will also be able to control investments outside of the estate, thus not being subject to a will and bypassing the complexities of probate, such as expensive legal fees and court challenges.

Walsh said NextGen Investments was designed to avoid the need for “complex trusts, unnecessary costs and additional third parties”.

NextGen Investments will be available on July 25. PDFs of the application form are available on Lifeplan’s website.