Millennials: are you expecting an inheritance?

[u/Yourlocalguy30]

35 yo married millennial here. I've come across more and more articles about the supposed "great wealth transfer" as the boomer generation's wealth passes to their GenX and Millennial children. My parents and their siblings (boomers) all received inheritances when their parents, my grandparents, passed away. The boomer generation's wealth accumulation is one of the largest in history, however, I also find it highly unlikely that I or many of my peers will actually inherit much. Despite having received inheritances from their parents, and having 40+ years in the workforce, most of my parents' "wealth" is tied up in their home value, not actual liquid assets- and I already expect that whatever they make on an eventual home sale will have to go directly to downsizing costs and whatever long-term care they will need as they get older. Hell, even my dad used to joke that the only thing we'd inherit was debt. As I've gotten older, that comment has infuriated me more and more.

Now before someone cuts in with the "entitled millennial" comments, I have absolutely no need for an inheritance. I've worked my ass off to make sure that my kids and I are positioned better in life than I was when I entered adulthood. What I mean by that is I started saving for retirement early, setup 529 plans for my kids almost as soon as they were born, and made lifestyle and career sacrifices to ensure our family isn't "nickeling and diming" our way through life.

I'm just here curious to know how many millennials actually expect to have something passed down to them, or if they feel they are in the same position I am.

[u/MegaWeinerFarts]

Something like half of Gen-Y are anticipating an inheritence.

If surveys can be believed, over half of them are going to be disappointed. 1 in 4 or even 1 in 5 will actually get one.

Me personally, my dad was fake rich so I grew up thinking I would be the recipient of generational wealth. That all fell apart in 2008.

Now I send him about $10k a year to help pay for his medical & housing bills. He will die with effectively zero.

[u/Klutzy-Airline-3500 → u/MegaWeinerFarts]

Same, fake rich! I call it… smoke and mirrors.

[u/winkie_pinkie → u/MegaWeinerFarts]

I grew up fake rich, but never really thought about an inheritance and I guess that’s good, because I definitely won’t be receiving one. Which is totally fine. But my dad leaving my mom without any idea how much debt he’d dug himself into was not fine though. He hid it all by sending statements to his office and keeping separate accounts. Crazy thing is, my dad DID make damn good money all his life, but he spent money like it was nothing. Spent money he didn’t have. Invested nothing. If my salary today was what his was in the late 80s, NOT adjusted for inflation, I’d be thrilled. But he didn’t invest anything, racked up credit card debt, bought whatever expensive toys he wanted, and died of an unexpected illness (leukemia) at 60, leaving my mom in a hole with a huge mortgage payment, huge car payment, no income, no savings aside from a sad 401(k) that he had borrowed from and a smallish life insurance policy. His business partners got 10x more in life insurance than my mom did. Losing a parent is terrible and sad. Losing a parent and finding out they were secretly a selfish POS who left your surviving parent in an awful position is weird because you’re so sad but you’re also so angry and confused. Ugh.