An intergenerational transfer of wealth is in motion in America — and it will dwarf any of the past. Of the 73m baby boomers, the youngest are turning 60, the oldest are nearing 80, and are now beginning to die in larger numbers. Most will leave behind thousands of dollars, a home or not much at all. Others are leaving their heirs hundreds of thousands, or millions, or billions of dollars in various assets. Of the $84t projected to be passed down from older Americans to millennial and Gen X heirs through 2045, $16t will be transferred within the next decade.
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The greatest wealth transfer in history is here, with familiar (rich) winners
“I have right now in my stock portfolio, some stock that my wife’s father, who died a long time ago, bought in the 1970s — that investment has gone from a few thousand dollars to many hundreds of thousands of dollars,” Mr. Pearl noted. “I’ve never paid a penny of taxes on all that, and I may not ever, because I might not sell and then my kids are going to have millions of dollars in income that’s never taxed in any way, shape or form.”
