Just a quarter of Americans expect to leave a financial inheritance, says Northwestern Mutual
While the advice and financial industry girds itself for a $90 trillion Great Wealth Transfer, only a minority of Americans expect to leave a financial gift for their descendants, suggests new research from Northwestern Mutual.
The insurance and planning giant’s 2024 Planning & Progress Study, which took responses from 4,588 US adults through online polling in January, reveals that just one-fourth of Americans (26 percent) anticipate leaving an inheritance.
“In the coming years, we will see a staggering $90 trillion generational transfer of wealth, but who will see it depends a great deal on people’s financial planning,” Kamilah Williams-Kemp, chief product officer at Northwestern Mutual, said in a statement Tuesday.
The research highlights a gaping disparity between the expectations of younger generations and the actual plans of their elders. While a third of millennials (32 percent) said they expect to receive an inheritance (excluding the 3 percent who already have), just over one-fifth of Gen X and Boomers+ (22 percent) actually plan to leave a financial gift.
For Gen Z, the gap is wider, with 38 percent expecting an inheritance (excluding the 6 percent who already got theirs), but only 22 percent of Gen X and 28 percent of Gen Y planning to leave one. Generation Alpha may be more likely to benefit, as the survey found over a third (36 percent) of Gen Z intends to leave a financial gift.
Among those anticipating an inheritance, half consider it “highly critical” or “critical” to their long-term financial security, with the figure rising to 59 percent among millennials. Gen Z has the highest hopes it could make a difference, with participants from that age group believing an inheritance could cover 10 percent of their
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