So much for that “great wealth transfer” that’s on the horizon. Despite millennials and Gen Xers being poised to inherit around $84 trillion by 2045 during the “silver tsunami,” it looks like boomers want to stand pat.
According to a new report from Charles Schwab, almost half of boomers surveyed (45%) said they wanted “to enjoy my money for myself while I’m still alive” — while only 11% of Gen Xers and 15% of millennials said the same.
Schwab’s survey of 1,000 high net worth (HNW) Americans, which is defined as people with more than $1 million in investable assets, found a sizeable generational shift: Millionaire millennials and Gen X were more than twice as likely to opt for sharing their wealth during their lifetime than Boomers.
Related: Baby Boomer Businesses Are Up for Grabs — Here’s How Entrepreneurs Can Benefit In 2025
“Schwab serves over a million multi-millionaires, and as they move from building wealth to preserving and passing it, we see an increasing need for specialized services and support around estate planning, wealth transfer, and legacy planning,” said Andrew D’Anna, managing director of retail client experience at Charles Schwab. “According to our survey, younger Americans could be poised to reshape legacy planning and the future of how wealth is passed to the next generation.”
Still, just because younger Americans plan to give more away sooner, it doesn’t mean they’re making it easy. While younger HNW individuals are more keen to give their money away—it comes with a catch.
According to the report, these plans have “strings attached.” Of millennials and Gen Xers who already have wealth transfer plans, a whopping 97% and 94%, respectively, have put “stipulations” in the contracts. Meanwhile, only one in three (around 34%) of Boomers have the same.
For millennials, most people said the catch is about how money can be used (43%), while more of Gen X (46%) preferred to set an age for when the next generation receives the wealth.
According to USA Today, some financial planners are trying to convince their clients to pass their wealth to their children while they are still young adults.
“It’s the 20- and 30-year-olds who need it the most,” Michelle Crumm, a certified financial planner in Ann Arbor, Michigan, told the outlet. ”Those two decades are the ones that have the highest needs and the lowest ability to have any money coming in.”
But her clients aren’t budging, she said, responding with things like: “Nobody ever gave me anything.”
For the full report, click here.
