The massive $5.4tn intergenerational asset shift looming over the next two decades is one of the biggest challenges the country faces. What will it mean?

Kim Day has got word that her mother-in-law is dying. At last. It’s good news for one half of Kath and Kim, the noughties comedy series that delighted international audiences with its satirisation-come-celebration of the comforts, proclivities and aspirations of middle Australia. By series three, Kim (Gina Riley) is struggling; she has a new baby and is living in her mother Kath’s (Jane Turner) house in Fountain Lakes – a mottled-brick, wide-lawned every-suburb. But her mother-in-law on the Gold Coast is rich. She has a luxe flat, stuffed with valuable goods. Kim is gleeful.

As they wait at a bus stop for a tour bus to take them to factory outlets, her “second-best friend”, Sharon (Magda Szubanksi), asks: “So, do you think you’re going to get the penthouse, Kim?”

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