Success.com | Relationships
By Tayla Blaire, September 12th, 2024
The Great Wealth Transfer—the idea that trillions will move from older generations, like baby boomers, to their children and grandchildren (millennials and Generation Z) in the coming decades—is currently a source of debate.
“It’s going to change the economy whether we like it or not,” explains financial adviser Sofia Cianciulli. “People will have to deal with a sudden lump sum of money and that means planning for a tax-efficient wealth transfer, which will be of major importance to millions of families in the coming years.”
However, surveys have shown there’s a wide disparity between what millennials and Gen Zers expect to inherit from boomers and what might actually be left for them. Inheritance is unlikely to be the financial planning boom that solves housing costs and student debt. And, unfortunately, the topic of inheritance can cause problems far beyond financial planning and tax implications.
It’s a subject that can tear families apart when the contents of a will result in severe emotional fallout.
When someone has died, that opportunity [for discussion] is no longer there. There’s a lot of room for assumption, a lot of room for being wrong. I can’t stress enough how empowering it can be to have a document where your loved one has explicitly stated what their wishes are because of the helplessness that can arise when someone dies.
Bêne Otto, Grief Psychologist
