The Great Wealth Transfer Is Coming

I was scrolling through the Washington Post last week when a headline caught my attention.

“Boomers’ massive wealth will mostly be passed down to people who are already rich.”

Sounds obvious, right? A little like saying “wealthy kids soon to inherit wealth from wealthy parents.” But I kept reading anyway.

The topic of inheritance was never complicated for me. In my family, like most traditional families, the conversation about what gets passed down was simple and settled. The family house goes to the oldest son. Whether he decided to share it or how he decided to share it was entirely up to him. That’s just how it worked.

So I did the only thing I could do. I worked hard. I got into a great school. I built my own financial foundation, brick by brick, because I knew nobody was handing me one.

And I think about all the people reading this right now who grew up the same way. Maybe the family house goes to the oldest son in your culture too. Maybe there is no house at all. Maybe your parents were too busy surviving to think about estate planning. Or maybe the word “inheritance” was never once spoken in your home.

The headlines about the Great Wealth Transfer make it sound like trillions of dollars are going to rain down on millennials and Gen Z. I needed to find out how much of that was actually true, so I kept reading, and what I found was equal parts clarifying and frustrating.

The Wealth Distribution Is Exactly What You Think

In a nutshell, the majority of the money transferred is going to very few hands and will most likely be saved or invested and not spent back into the economy.

According to a new analysis by Visa Business and Economic Insights, boomers will pass on about $36 trillion to their heirs over the next 20 years [1], after subtracting liabilities like mortgages, retirement spending, and taxes. It works out to roughly $515,000 per inheriting household.

Sounds significant. Until you read the next line.

Nearly three-quarters of households receiving an inheritance will already be in the top echelon of wealth when they receive it. The richest boomers in the 90th to 99th percentile hold $44 trillion in wealth, while the bottom90% of boomer households hold just $16 trillion combined.

As Columbia professor Jeremy Ney put it: “Wealthier Americans are going to be putting that money into the stock market or real estate. It doesn’t buy groceries or cars, it just changes your accountant’s week.”

The Expectation Gap

Almost half of millennials cannot count on money from their parents.

Northwestern Mutual’s 2026 Planning & Progress study notes that only 22% of boomers plan to leave an inheritance [2]. Meanwhile a wealth transfer survey by Citizens Bank estimated 55% of millennials expect to inherit wealth within the next five years [3].

For those millennials who do receive something, the timing works against them. Most millennial inheritances won’t arrive until the 2040s, when the average millennial will already be in their 50s. By the time the money arrives, they probably won’t need it the same way they would have needed it at 28. And that’s because those heirs have had more time to accumulate wealth than they would have if they had inherited in their 20s or 30s.

A Word on Trump Accounts

I wrote about Trump Accounts last week—the government’s new investment account for children that launched on July 4th. A Trump Account is, at its core, a Traditional IRA (Individual Retirement Account) for kids. The $1,000 government seed is meaningful but comes with some caveats. The money is locked until the child turns 18, withdrawals are taxed as ordinary income, and for families who can’t contribute the additional $5,000 a year on top of that seed, it stays a starting line.

The Great Wealth Transfer is concentrated at the top. Trump Accounts give every child a new starting line. But a $1,000 floor in a world where 75% of inheritance flows to households already in the top tier of wealth is not exactly equity. It’s simply a nod in the right direction.

The real question for Trump Accounts, for Endowe, and for any of these tools, is what happens after the seed is planted. Who shows up to water it?

What This Means for You

If you are in your 20s, 30s, or early 40s and are factoring an inheritance into your financial plans, I’d suggest you stop doing that.

There is no guarantee that the timing will be right, or that the math of compounding interest will work in your favor. An inheritance that arrives when you are 55 cannot replace 30 years of compound growth that started at 25.

The wealth your parents and grandparents built probably took decades of consistent investing, homeownership, and compounding. The only way to replicate that outcome is to start building your own version of it now, with whatever you have. And if or when the inheritance comes, it becomes a bonus—like icing on a cake.

That means open the investment account. Make the automatic contribution. Let the people who love you contribute to your investment portfolio instead of buying you things you don’t need. Use every tool available: a 401k, a Roth IRA, a brokerage account, a Trump Account for your kids, an Endowe registry for your next birthday.

I knew from a young age that my wealth was going to start with me. Maybe you did too. That clarity, paired with the right tools and a community that shows up, is how you build wealth.

The Great Wealth Transfer is very real. But for most of us, the wealth we end up with will be the wealth we built ourselves.

The sooner we accept that, the sooner we can get to work.

With lots of love,
Your godmother Ada

Disclaimer: As someone in finance as a regulated investment professional, I want to be clear: I’m not your financial adviser, and this post is education, not personalized advice. All investments carry risk including possible loss of principal, and past performance doesn’t guarantee future results. Talk to a professional who knows your full situation before making money moves.