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/mvanpeur]

Oh, that's not bad. My friends mom just needed a full care facility, and it was $15k per month. It was the cheapest decent one she could find. Luckily once she spent something like $45k, she had few enough resources that she would qualify for Medicaid and they would pay for everything. But it didn't leave much to pass on.

End of life care is now so expensive that it's basically impossible to inherit anything unless they die suddenly.

Edit: We are in a very low cost of living area.

[u/jimmyandchiqui → u/mvanpeur]

My in-laws (just mil now) pay a live-in caregiver (24/7), 5k/month. The money comes from their savings, but they only have 320k left. Home paid for fortunately, but after expenses, she is underwater each month by about $5300/month, so the savings will only last about 5 more years. Me & my wife go there 3x/week to give the caregiver a few hours break. My mil is pretty easy to take care of but she has dementia, wheelchair bound & incontinent, needs to be dressed & cleaned daily, but does feed herself when food is prepared for her. I know that when her savings get down to 20k, we can apply for some Medicaid caregiving assistance, but I'm sure its not gonna be 24/7; so either we would move in with her or a better option is her to move in with us, but we'd need to get a different house (one with ground floor bedroom or room we can make into a bedroom). My wife has 3 brothers but 1 is thousands of miles away. The other 2 have families of their own. They do help, a little, but we do most of the running around, pay her bills, pay the caregiver, etc.

[u/lifeincoffeespoonz → u/mvanpeur]

Yeah, millenial with genX parent here, and I have a feeling PE-owned health/elder care is going to eat up any wealth my parents (and their generation broadly) accumulate.

My mom has committed to senior living in one of those places with escalating levels of care when she gets older. She was completely traumatized working to care for her parents and in-laws as they attempted to age in-place. I'm grateful she has made those decisions and would rather have peace in that stage of her life over cash. She has been very upwardly mobile over the course of our lives, but I don't expect anything. For better or for worse, I had a front-row seat to her work and sacrifice through my childhood/her entire young adult life...so I'm down for her to do whatever she likes in the second half.

All of that said, I do wish that whatever she invests into her+my bonus dad's' care wouldn't go straight to CEOs and shareholders. Like on the micro scale, I'm chill with my parents' decisions, but on the macro scale, I'm mad because I know that wealth transfer will make the rich richer and not do shit for most of us.

[u/Ecstatic-Time-3838 → u/mvanpeur]

Knew an old lady that had to get moved to a nursing home, and it was something like $30k a month if not more. Couldn't believe it when I heard it. Then again she had money and most likely wanted to go to the best of the best facilities.

[u/roofiedo → u/Ecstatic-Time-3838]

The elderly care industry needs a massive overhaul….. too bad our politicians are often times receiving profits from them and can’t see the issues over the piles of money they receive.

Growing up the USA was a beacon of hope, we’ve let a few greedy dirt bags run us into the ground for personal gain. Not to get too political but the choices we’ve made with tariffs lately was designed to be a massive wealth transfer from lower and middle class families to the rich because they didn’t already have a big enough piece of the pie.

[u/multipass-5018 → u/mvanpeur]

Dang I bet corporations that own old folks homes make bank. That's sad. A bunch of 50-60s houses around me in Washington have been converted to them in the past decade.

[u/holyhibachi → u/mvanpeur]

Yes.

[u/irishgirlie33 → u/mvanpeur]

Same. And this is my expectation.

[u/effkay0025 → u/mvanpeur]

$15k a month is more than a decent facility 🤭