Money Magazine Best of the Best Award 2025

Generation Life is proud to have won the 2025 Money Magazine Best of the Best Award for Innovation - Intergenerational Wealth for our Generation Life Investment Bonds and LifeIncome, our Lifetime income stream solution.

Now in its 25th year, the Money Magazine Awards annually recognise Australia's leading firms in superannuation, managed funds, banking, broking, insurance, and investment management. Rainmaker Group, the publisher of Money Magazine, uses data and research to inform the reviews and assessments for these prestigious Best of the Best Awards.

Grant Hackett OAM, our Chief Executive Officer, said: "At Generation Life, innovation is one of our core values. Winning this award truly showcases our commitment to innovation and helping Australians, as we understand that leaving wealth across generations to those who matter most is one of the most emotional life goals Australians will ever work towards to.”

This is the second year running that we’ve received a Best of the Best for Innovation award from Money Magazine, recognising our leadership and innovation in the intergenerational wealth space.
 

Our innovative mindset – helping Australians achieve generational wealth

At Generation Life, we help Australians navigate the complexities of tomorrow. We understand that each person’s objectives and circumstances around intergenerational wealth can differ. That’s why we’ve developed clever, simple solutions to help achieve and preserve generational wealth.

In Australia, we are witnessing the biggest wealth transfer in history, as Baby Boomers currently hold approximately $4.5 trillion in assets¹ and it is estimated that $224 billion will be passed on each year by 2050².

Around five million Australians will transition into well-deserved retirement,³ joining the close to 5 million people who have already retired.⁴ This historically large group of retirees are focused on funding a dignified retirement that they’ve always dreamt about, but also thinking about the footprint they’ll leave on the world when they pass away. According to our 2023 Reimagining Legacy research guide, 80% of Australians intend to leave a legacy, however in reality, only one in five have a plan to do so.
 

The value of advice – helping Australians navigate this emotional phase in life

Financial advice helps solve Australia’s future problems, today. The expertise of financial advisers can help Australians find the best investment solutions to suit their needs, not just to transfer wealth, but with assurance about who will receive an inheritance and when, therefore achieving and preserving generational wealth across generations.

There is no denying the immense value of financial advice. Our 2024 Not Tomorrow’s Problem research guide proved this immense value with higher levels of financial education and overall happiness experienced by Australians, with two in three of advised Australians currently happy with their financial situation. Those who see a financial adviser are almost twice as likely to be happy with their situation than those who don’t.⁵
 

Generation Life’s innovation to achieve Generational Wealth

Generation Life Investment Bonds – Creating a bond for life

A Generation Life Investment Bond is a simple, tax-effective investment structure that can support succession and estate planning needs. Investment bonds can be established as a non-estate asset, which means that your investment can be passed on outside of your will arrangements. This is especially helpful for those with complicated family relationships and helps mitigate the risk of estate challenges and the associated costs.

The transfer of ownership or payment of death benefits also don’t trigger any tax assessable amounts. With another popular method of estate planning, superannuation death benefit payments may be taxed, depending on who is receiving the benefit, the type of superannuation account and the account’s tax components. Importantly, when you arrange to pass on wealth through an investment bond, you do this with certainty. When passing on wealth through superannuation, trustee discretion may come into play, depending on your superannuation fund.

A tax aware approach to investing across generations

Investment bonds are a tax-paid structure that offer powerful tax advantages. Investment earnings do not need to be declared in your annual tax return and taxed at a maximum rate of 30%. The actual effective tax rate however can be significantly lower, with our Tax-Optimised investment series effective tax rate generally ranging between 10-15% over the long term.⁶ The compounding effect of such a tax saving over time can be significant.

With our investment bond, you can transfer ownership seamlessly, allowing wealth to be passed on without triggering a lump sum payment. This approach helps minimise the potential impact of a recipient's personal tax liability and bracket creep, making investment bonds a more tax-effective way to transfer wealth.

Generation Life was proud to be recognised as the 2024 Best of the Best for Innovation in Tax-Aware Investing.
 

Generation Life LifeIncome

One unexpected, and slightly unfamiliar, beneficiary payout tool that helps challenge this uncertainty comes in the form of the lifetime income streams, such as LifeIncome.  

Lifetime income streams are typically used by retirees to provide a regular income, guaranteed for life that is investment linked, and can complement their super and other income sources, like their Age Pension. They are hugely successful at this too. But interestingly, lifetime income streams, such as LifeIncome, are a great way to provide for loved ones once you are gone with a regular income guaranteed for life.

LifeIncome is a lifetime income stream that offers a level of innovation that’s not often found in traditional financial solutions; they are flexible and can be creatively applied in ways that cater to any family situation. 

When setting up a LifeIncome, you can choose when to receive income and have a choice of different investment options that can be switched between over the life of the income stream. Importantly, a beneficiary or reversionary annuitant can be nominated to be paid a lifelong income.
 

About Generation Life

As the pioneer of Australia’s first truly flexible investment bond, Generation Life has been at the forefront of providing innovative investment, estate planning and retirement solutions since 2004 with over $3.6 billion in funds under management. We work with some of the leading Australian and international managers, as well as our own investment experts to provide investment choice and flexibility to meet the varied needs of investors.
 

Source:

1. McGrath, J., 2024 “$4.5 trillion: Baby Boomers’ seismic move” accessed 10 December 2024.
2. Vickovich, A, 2021, “Baby Boomers to pass on $224b a year by 2050”, published in The Australian Financial Review on 7 December 2021 https://www.afr.com/policy/economy/baby-boomers-to-pass-on-224b-a-year-by-2050-20211206-p59f7d accessed 4 July 2024
3. Treasurer media release 13 June 2023 - https://ministers.treasury.gov.au/ministers/stephen-jones-2022/media-releases/delivering-better-financial-outcomes-roadmap-financial accessed 9 December 2024
4. Salt, B, 2021, “Turning point: the 2020s baby boom retirement surge”, published in Firstlinks on 24 March 2021 https://www.firstlinks.com.au/turning-point-2020s-baby-boom-retirement-surge,” accessed 4 July 2024
5. Generation Life Not Tomorrow’s Problem Guide 2024
6. Estimated average tax rates being the estimated average annual tax as a percentage of earnings for each 12-month period over a period of 15 years. Actual tax amounts payable are not guaranteed and may vary from year to year based on, amongst other things, the earnings of an investment option. Past performance is not an indicator of future performance.