South Africa is on the cusp of one of the largest generational wealth transfers in its history. With over 30% of high-net-worth individuals (HNWIs) now over the age of 60, the next decade is expected to see trillions of rands passed down to younger generations. Globally, the number is even more staggering. According to a 2021 study by Cerulli Associates, more than $84 trillion is expected to be transferred to heirs and charities by 2045 in the United States alone. This “Great Wealth Transfer” is one of the most significant financial shifts of our time – and South African families are very much part of it.
But here’s the rub: most family wealth doesn’t last.
The old saying “shirtsleeves to shirtsleeves in three generations” reflects a harsh reality. The first generation builds the wealth. The second maintains it. The third spends it all.
Examples of this abound. The Vanderbilts in the United States, once among the richest families in the world thanks to the railroad empire built by Cornelius Vanderbilt, saw their fortune largely disappear within two generations. Similarly, the Gucci family lost control of their iconic fashion house after infighting and a lack of cohesive succession planning.
Closer to home, South Africa has its own stories – though often kept out of the public eye. One such example is the decline of the iconic retail brand Stuttafords, which was once considered the “Harrods of South Africa.” While not a traditional family business toward the end, it originated with a family legacy. Stuttafords closed its doors after 159 years, following years of strategic missteps and the inability to adapt to changing market conditions – offering a cautionary tale about legacy erosion in modern times.
Another common scenario involves family-run farms in regions like the Free State and Western Cape. In one illustrative case, a successful third-generation maize farming family was forced to sell significant portions of their land to cover estate duties and legal costs after the patriarch’s death.
With no liquidity plan or unified succession strategy, sibling disputes followed and the enterprise ultimately collapsed.
These stories, while less publicised, are common and serve as cautionary tales for many successful South African families today. This doesn’t have to be your family’s story.
South Africa has one of the highest levels of wealth inequality in the world. According to a 2020 working paper from the World Inequality Database (Chatterjee, Czajka & Gethin), the top 10% of people own more than 70% of the country’s wealth. The bottom 60%? Just 7%. This makes the successful transfer of wealth not only a family issue – but a broader socio-economic one. Done right, it can empower future generations. Done poorly, it fuels further inequality and family breakdown.
Studies consistently show that:
Why? Often, it comes down to:
Wealth alone isn’t enough. Families need structure, communication and a shared vision.
Here at home, intergenerational wealth transfer is often even more complex.
🔹 A Legacy of Exclusion
For many previously disadvantaged families, this is the first generation creating real financial capital. They may not have access to experienced advisors or the benefit of learning from past generations.
🔹 Complicated Structures
Many South African families have assets held in trusts, companies, or offshore jurisdictions. If there isn’t a clear map of how these tie together, wealth can quickly become fragmented and lost.
🔹 Tax Exposure
Estates above R3.5 million are subject to estate duty—20%, rising to 25% above R30 million. Add in capital gains tax and executor’s fees, and you could see a substantial chunk of an estate eroded.
🔹 Silence and Secrecy
Many families avoid talking about money. While understandable, this often leads to confusion, resentment and legal disputes down the line.
A Family Charter is a shared agreement that captures your family’s values, vision and long-term goals. It’s not a legal document, but it can be even more powerful when it comes to guiding decisions and behaviour.
We help families co-create charters that outline:
It’s your family’s mission statement – and it forms the backbone of everything else.
We design estate plans that are strategically aligned with your values and tailored to your family’s long-term goals. While we do not draft legal documents ourselves, we guide the process from start to finish, facilitate essential conversations, and connect our clients to a trusted global network of legal, tax and fiduciary experts. Our international reach allows us to bring in the right professionals – locally and globally – based on your unique needs, cross-border considerations, and jurisdictional complexity.
This includes:
Through our ongoing work with families, we naturally facilitate conversations and guidance that help younger family members:
1. Understand budgeting, investing and risk
2. Learn how trusts and taxes work
3. Build confidence in managing wealth
4. Shift from entitlement to stewardship
We also facilitate family forums to spark open, honest conversations about legacy.
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We view wealth as multi-dimensional. For family office clients, our relationship includes:
We are long-term partners in designing and managing holistic family wealth strategies that endure.
A Cape-based agricultural family came to Henceforward with a familiar challenge: how to transition land, business operations, and generational wealth to their children in a way that was sustainable, values-aligned, and conflict-free.
At the heart of the family was a second-generation matriarch who had taken on the immense responsibility of managing the family’s affairs on her own. She wanted to honour the legacy of the founding generation while laying the groundwork for the third generation to succeed.
By facilitating multi-generational family meetings, co-developing a Family Charter, and collaborating with legal and fiduciary partners to implement a testamentary trust, we helped the family:
Importantly, we created a space for the third generation to understand the founder’s vision and values—preparing them to gradually take on greater responsibility with a sense of purpose and clarity.
Today, the family continues to operate the business with greater unity and professional governance, guided by shared principles and a long-term legacy strategy.
Steven Hall is a Certified Financial Planner® with over 20 years of experience in wealth management and estate planning. He works closely with high-net-worth families to design long-term strategies for preserving and transferring wealth across generations. Steven is a director at Henceforward and brings a thoughtful, values-based approach to financial planning.
