Time we all had a chat
Published on 5 May, 2025
Originally published in the Waikato Business News, Monday 5 May 2025.
David Christiansen, Executive Officer, Momentum Waikato.
The western world is on the cusp of the largest inter-generational transfer of wealth in history, as the Baby Boomer generation reach the end of their lifetimes.
To give this a local perspective, here’s some facts and figures.
$1.6 Trillion is the estimated total value of estates to be transferred in New Zealand as the Boomers pass away over the next 25 years;
only 55 per cent of New Zealanders have a Will;
and only 6 per cent of those include charitable giving, well below the rates of similar countries globally.
These are some of the findings in the newly launched The Bequest Report – Reshaping Aotearoa New Zealand by creating a legacy that goes beyond asset wealth, by JBWere New Zealand, one of Momentum Waikato’s investment partners.
This Report asserts that if the frequency and proportion of charitable giving in Wills were to grow in Aotearoa, even marginally, it would be transformational for the entire not-for-profit sector and the communities they support.
Ultimately, JBWere’s purpose in laying out the facts and forecasts in The Bequest Report is to promote the potential for “a deeper meaning of legacy that can be achieved with stronger connections to community”.
Quite apart from the figures involved, they point out that charitable bequests are the most valuable type of income for charitable not-for-profit organisations, as bequests provide by far the best ‘return on investment’ on the effort and costs involved in any kind of fundraising.
New Zealanders are a generous people, we all know that because so many of us routinely give time and money. So this is not about a lack of generosity, it is about us needing to normalise the act of charitable giving when we consider our Will and legacy.
As the Report acknowledges, community foundations like Momentum Waikato are ideally placed to enable a Will-writer’s perpetual legacy, through our philanthropic investment fund model - what we call ‘smart giving’.
This is the message we are spreading through the ‘Professional Advisors Network’ we are currently setting up, where we are asking and enabling the Waikato’s lawyers, accountants and other financial advisors to have conversations with their clients about including a charitable bequest in their Will.
Really, it is time we all had a chat – with our partner, family and friends, and our lawyer, accountant or investment advisor, and ideally with Momentum Waikato.
Because gifting even a small proportion of your Will to a charity will still leave most of your estate to your family, while creating an enduring legacy of your values.
Charitable gifts clearly need to be a routine part of our Will writing, because such bequests can add up to being transformational for our society. Let’s do it!
