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.
There was a segment on NPR recently where they were talking about how many Boomers are selling their houses to pay for medical bills and long-term care, leaving little to nothing for their children.
My Boomer parents had one of those “I’m spending my kids’ inheritance” bumper stickers on one of their RVs and it was no joke. New RVs every couple of years, driving around the country part of each summer, new boats every couple of years, two timeshares, one in Branson, one on the gulf coast FL, two houses, one in the Adirondacks, one outside Orlando, flying back and forth twice a year, a new gold wing every couple of years. They don’t believe they’re rich.
My father worked his whole life as a telephone lineman, retired at 55. My mother worked swing shift in processing at Kodak. Neither started wealthy. My dad had to purchase my grandfather’s farmhouse. My mother didn’t inherit anything. And they didn’t think one second about passing anything down.
Placing the blame on medical costs for the generation as a whole is letting them off the hook, again. Boomers are too selfish to pass anything down anyway.
Not true. They voted, and THAT legacy will be with us for a LONG time…
And sadly, I don’t even mean DT - there’s Ted Cruz, Moscow Mitch, the whole cohort - along with all the international agreements that we’ve already pulled out of and so on.
See, they left us something after all?! :-P This economy, lack of access to healthcare, and so much more!?
Btw, I don’t know about you, but I have a retirement plan for my old age. I plan to die. :-P
In fairness, it is less that they are “selfish” and more that they are “clueless” (to the point of obstinacy, outright refusing to open their eyes) - b/c as you said, your mother didn’t inherit anything, and yet THEY are fine, so why wouldn’t you be, with nothing left to you either? (remember as you think this through to remove all of the actual “facts” first, and add the layer of Faux News Nostalgia factor)
Yep my dad brags about his wealth and how rich he is and he has made it clear we will not get jack shit. He will blow every dime save nothing.
Union workers with pensions?
Pensions, yes, though my father lost his sometime after he retired. I don’t think the phone company was union, but Kodak likely was. Both parents were anti-union. Both were forced into retirement as Kodak passed on digital photography and phone companies started consolidating.
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It’s absolutely going to be most of them. Modern medical care isn’t worried about quality of life at end of life, and because we don’t have healthy conversations around death in the USA, the kids will probably be desperate to keep mom and dad hooked up to machines until they’re literally fucking braindead.