Experts say baby boomers will give more than $50 trillion to their heirs. But for many, health care costs will claim the bulk of that wealth.
The story goes that baby boomers are going to give tens of trillions of dollars to their heirs over the next few decades.
The “generational wealth transfer” has become a media fascination, both for its eye-popping size and because it might help younger generations as they face doubts about their financial security.
That shift is already in the works, and will continue for a couple of decades. According to wealth management firm Cerulli Associates, some $53 trillion will be passed down from boomers to their Gen X, millennial and Gen Z heirs, as well as to charities. That includes both gifts during their lifetimes and inheritances afterward.
But the overwhelming cost of health care for older people means most people in those later generations won’t inherit much, even if their elders seem well-off today.
Gen X here. I do not expect any inheritance at all.
And how much of this “fascination” with generational wealth transfer is actually companies salivating over potential profits?
Elder millenial here. I expect no inheritance from my mom or grandparents and no social security. I’m one of the lucky ones though. My dad died ten years ago and left me just enough to make a down payment on a house.
The moral of the story is, give your parents cigarettes and hope the cancer kills them quick before the bills can pile up.
Don’t believe the social security scare tactics. It’s always been a shell game. It isn’t some pile of money that runs out if we don’t pay into it. It is just another line item. Short of voting for it to die, it will be there.
I hope you’re right but we will see. It would really suck to pay into a system your whole life and never get what you were promised.
Ppl are ways to quick to vote against their own self-interests. Better to just plan it will be gone
They summoned a new inheritance tax over here, they sold it to us in the shape of: to get more taxes from the rich.
But those idiots don’t run around giving away money, they hand out businesses and stocks to their family or other assets.
So who are once again ending up paying even more money? Hmm? Yeah that’s right, if my dad manages to have some money left the goddamn tax criminals will gobble that up even though i probably need it to pay for his funeral.
Only 1 in every 500 Americans is affected by the inheritance tax.
You need more than $5 million to pay for a funeral? Because there won’t be any taxes on the first 5 million.
I’m not talking about your american taxes, i’m not an American.
Maybe state where you’re from tho
Why do you sepos think everyone on the internet is also a yank? Haha
If that’s in the US there’s a very good chance there’s not enough money in the estate or inheritance to trigger it. We’re talking in the several millions.
In the US the threshold is 13 mil before inheritance taxes kick in, so basically never.
The ultrarich still dont pay it here. The con they use is setting up a charity that they dump hundreds of millions into and then give their children outrageous lifetime salaries and full discretion to throw parties/events/travel/etc in the name of the “charity.” Since no one else actually donates, no one cares about how thr money is spent. They kids get the same ultra wealthy life style with none of the downsides, with media accolades and “Charitywashing” rarr rarrs to boot.
Chances are, corporations are already plotting how to get the boomers to spend as much as possible before they pass away.
Shopping network and other 24/7 buy-over-the-phone television programming has already filched billions away from the silent generation by taking advantage of their cognitive decline. They just need to figure out what sticks with the Boomers now.
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Same. Everyone I know who has boomer relatives doesn’t expect to get any inheritance. That goes for my wife and I as well. I don’t really mind personally. I’ve made a concerted effort to be self-sufficient and have never banked on getting a dime of inheritance. But I feel like too many in the media are setting a dangerous cultural trend where many people will falsely expect to get money.
Yeah I was disowned and my wife’s parents have made it clear nobody gets much
I don’t get how we blame the media for reporting on unprecedented things that economists are talking about. If someone thinks they are getting an inheritance because they heard boomers have a lot of money as a group, then that stupidity is on them, not on the media.