The $124 Trillion Inheritance Question: Are Families Ill-Prepared for the Great Wealth Transfer?
A parent dies. The house has to be sold, accounts must be located, and siblings who thought they understood the family’s plans discover they had very different expectations. One person believes a promise was made years ago. Another questions the choice of executor. Even a modest inheritance can expose tensions that families have avoided discussing for decades.
Those are the problems Houston trusts and estates attorney Don Ford, Managing Partner at Ford + Bergner LLP has been warning families about for years. In March 2020, just before the pandemic, Ford spoke to roughly 300 Texas trusts and estates attorneys about the approaching transfer of Baby Boomer wealth. Six years later, the numbers have grown, but the everyday question is unchanged: are the people who will inherit prepared for the decisions, responsibilities and relationships that come with it?
Cerulli Associates projected in 2025 that approximately $124 trillion in U.S. household wealth will change hands through 2048, with about $108 trillion going directly to heirs. The same firm estimates that Generation X will receive roughly $1.4 trillion annually on average over the next decade, even as Millennials stand to inherit more over the longer term.
A separate UBS Global Wealth Report issued in June 2025 projected more than $83 trillion in transfers across the markets it studied over the next 20 to 25 years, including approximately $74 trillion between generations and $9 trillion between spouses. Its forecast includes more than $29 trillion in the United States. The UBS and Cerulli estimates use different populations and methods, so they are not competing measures of the same pool of wealth.
The figures are enormous. The family conversations behind them are often conspicuously small. Wells Fargo’s October 2026 Wealth Transfer Study surveyed 817 affluent Baby Boomer parents and 787 adult children from families with at least $1 million in investable assets. Sixty-one percent of the adult children reported negative family experiences involving inherited wealth, compared with 29% of parents. Such experiences included hurt feelings, disputes over fairness, estrangement and litigation. Nearly half of adult children, 49%, worried inheritance discussions could cause conflict, compared with 20% of parents. Yet just 21% of parents reported detailed estate-plan conversations with their children.
The knowledge gap was just as revealing. Although 93% of parents said they knew how much they expected to transfer, only 54% of adult children said their parents had told them how much they were likely to inherit. Twenty-two percent of adult children did not know whether they had been named an executor or trustee, or granted powers of attorney. Those numbers describe affluent families, not the entire country, but they expose a practical weakness that can surface at almost any wealth level.
Ford has seen how quickly a parent’s wishes can become a source of conflict when those wishes are not recorded clearly. In one estate dispute he describes, adult children who had grown up together became embroiled in litigation after their father’s death. The disagreement exposed a gap between what the parent had expected and what his estate documents actually established. The family’s wealth was substantial, but the underlying problem was familiar: relatives could not agree on what the deceased had intended.
“I did not know him personally, but every account of this man tells me that he was a truly kind, generous, hard-working, and well-intentioned man,” Ford wrote of the father. Good intentions, he argues, cannot resolve an inheritance dispute once family members begin interpreting them differently.
For ordinary households, the same questions arise over a longtime family home, sentimental possessions, retirement savings, life insurance proceeds and responsibility for an aging relative. A will may say who receives an asset, but families also need to know who has authority to act, how expenses will be paid, whether property must be sold and what happens if an heir objects. Beneficiary designations and jointly owned accounts can operate differently from a will, making a coordinated review especially important.
Misunderstandings are not confined to wealthy families. One child may expect to inherit the home because they helped care for a parent; another may expect an equal share of its sale proceeds. Without explicit instructions, both can feel betrayed. Ford’s emphasis is on identifying those expectations while the person making the estate plan can still address them.
Ford’s first recommendation begins before the legal paperwork: “Realistically and objectively consider your beneficiaries’ skills, talents, weaknesses, and relationships with each other.” An adult child who struggles with money may need a different inheritance structure from a financially experienced sibling. A family member who cannot cooperate with others may be a poor choice to administer an estate. Treating children fairly does not always require assigning them identical responsibilities.
His second recommendation is more demanding than leaving a folder of documents: “Teach the next generation! Do not cross your fingers and hope for the best when you are gone. Equip them over a long period of time with the knowledge and ability to successfully take the reins.” That education can start with practical matters: where important records are kept, how bills are paid, whom to contact, how a trust works and what tax or maintenance obligations accompany inherited property.
Research suggests families frequently stop short. In RBC Wealth Management’s May 2025 survey, 89% of Baby Boomers considered inheritance discussions important, but only 39% had given heirs guidance about their intentions. Just 17% said their heirs were very well informed about their level of wealth; only 54% of intended recipients felt very prepared to receive an inheritance.
Fidelity’s 2025 Family and Finance Study found that 30% of parents had not created a will and estate plan they felt confident about. In Bank of America Private Bank’s 2026 survey, only 36% of respondents with at least $25 million in investable assets believed their heirs were very prepared to inherit, and 61% worried family wealth could undermine heirs’ motivation to succeed. Among that same ultra-high-net-worth group, 79% involved advisers in estate-planning conversations with heirs, illustrating that access to professional advice does not automatically resolve every concern about readiness.
“Have difficult conversations,” Ford advises. “Having an honest conversation with your beneficiaries about choices that you’ve made (and not made) will reduce the likelihood of conflict once you are gone.” Parents need not announce every account balance over dinner. They can explain why one child will serve as executor, why a home may have to be sold, how personal possessions will be divided and what they expect if a beneficiary needs extra support.
Ford is equally direct about beneficiaries who cannot cooperate: “If your beneficiaries do not get along well, do not tie them together forever.” His recommendation is to consider an independent fiduciary when inherited assets would otherwise force feuding relatives into shared decision-making. Independence can reduce conflicts of interest, but the selection still demands scrutiny of expertise, fees, authority, removal provisions and the governing trust terms.
One more aspect of the transfer complicates the familiar story of parents leaving money to children. Cerulli reported in January 2025 that approximately $54 trillion is expected to pass to widows through 2048, with more than 95% going to women, before much of that wealth ultimately passes to younger generations. The surviving spouse may therefore be the first person who needs access, authority, financial education and a trusted advisory relationship.
“Surround yourself with a solid team of professionals who not only guide you in managing your wealth but who can also guide the next generation through the wealth transfer,” Ford recommends. For many families, that means an estate-planning attorney, a financial adviser and a tax professional who understand how the pieces fit together. It also means checking whether wills, trusts, account beneficiaries, powers of attorney and health care directives still reflect current circumstances.
Ford has spent nearly 30 years advising families on planning and disputes. His experience has left him with a broader definition of what parents should pass on. “While it may be impossible to perfectly prepare your beneficiaries, making intentional efforts to properly equip them to receive the wealth can be a greater legacy to your family than actually having created the wealth in the first place.”
A useful family test is simple: if someone died tomorrow, would the people closest to them know where to find the documents, who is authorized to act and what the person wanted? If those answers exist only in private conversations or assumptions, the family has more planning to do.
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Entrepreneur Leadership Network member Merilee Kern, MBA, is a highly regarded brand strategist and analyst who reports on cultural shifts, trends, and notable industry leaders across both B2C and B2B sectors. Her work covers a broad range of categories, including field experts, thought leaders, brands, products, services, destinations, and events. As Founder, Executive Editor, and Producer of The Luxe List International News Syndicate, Merilee is a respected marketplace voice whose work reaches millions worldwide through broadcast TV (including her own shows and numerous others on which she appears) as well as a variety of print and online publications. Connect with her at www.TheLuxeList.com / Instagram www.Instagram.com/MerileeKern / Twitter www.Twitter.com/MerileeKern / Facebook www.Facebook.com/MerileeKernOfficial / LinkedIN www.LinkedIn.com/in/MerileeKern.
Sources
https://www.cerulli.com/arc-newsletter-q1-2025
https://www.ubs.com/global/en/media/display-page-ndp/en-20250618-gwr-2025.html
https://ustrustaem.fs.ml.com/articles/study-of-wealthy-americans.html
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