Given the “seismic” windfall millennials are set to inherit – £71 trillion in assets in the UK alone, or more than £500,000 apiece for those inheriting from the wealthiest 10pc, according to Knight Frank – the future looks contentious.
Total value of household assets in UK (so, financial wealth, pension pots and property) is around £15 trillion.
Sure, we can mutter about overseas assets and all but really, not that much.
How ‘selfish and entitled’ millennials are capitalising on a £71 trillion goldmine
As baby boomer parents die, a record number of wills are being challenged in the courts
Both subs and the journalist seem to believe it though.
Charlotte Lytton
Tsk.
The common sense check is (should have been) that £71 trillion would be more than £1 million each for everyone in the UK (of any age or financial stratum)…
Translation: Lytton and her ilk think they see a pile of money, are greedy shits who want it for their purposes, and think using the State to get at it is virtuous.
I can’t see what this figure is based on but earlier this year, Knight Frank’s ‘wealth report’ cited US$90 trillion as the exchange of wealth over the next decade between older generations and millennials in the US. This is based on:
A January 2022 study by Cerulli Associates indicated a transfer of approximately US$84.4 trillion in the
US, from older generations to younger generations and charities, over a two-decade period. Taking into account asset price movements up to December, this figure could equate to close to US$90 trillion.
Spread over 73 million US millennials, $90 trillion is more than $12m each, right? Or have the zeroes confused me?
Even if the US figure was correct, the UK number can’t be the same, bearing in mind the differing size and wealth of the population. It sounds like both KF and the Telegraph are confused.
Funny, but I’ve just finished sorting out my wife’s affairs after she died last year. So I told my four kids on Fathers’ Day and the first question was: “Where is all the money?” The worry they had, it seems, is that investments, bank accounts, ISAs, etc these days don’t have a paper trail – everything is online. Stupid me, I thought they were after my money!
I wonder. Are there fewer millennials than boomers (in the UK). If so will the value of housing fall as the boomers fall off their perches, with a shortage of people to sell the houses to? Presumably not if there are a gazillion invaders arriving each year.
I’ve no argument with the proposition that younger generations will receive a splurge of money. Even after “Sir” Kneel Strimmer’s government tries to pocket more and more of it.
Considering the way medical and care expenses works (something like half of lifetime in the last 6 months of life), it’s likely that a lot of that will have already been spent by the time the will is read.
Perhaps that’s where all the lawsuits are coming from.
“Where’s all the money?!” “Spent between home care, and drugs for the cancer. The house was reverse mortgaged a while ago…”
While inheritance does go to younger generations, it doesn’t go to *the* *young*. It goes to people in their 50s and 60s. I know one chap nearing 70 whose mother is still alive and healthy and living in her assets.
Leaving aside the dubious calculation, the observant have probably noticed a number of trends converging against this being reality.
– A number of jurisdictions are looking at taxes on unrealized capital gains, so that would hoover up a lot of this supposed Wealth
– which is also related to the fact that despite the idiocies of Spud and his ilk, the state is to all intents and purpose bankrupt – true of the UK and true of most of the Western world (Indeed I think all of it) – the collapse in living standards will be awesome to behold. For public sector workers , in particular those in fields like ‘diversity’ things are likely to become very bad as these roles indicate complete unsuitability for any type of productive employment. I’d expect 60% or so of universities to close and people to be looking at starvation.
– that of course won’t stop them trying to rob the productive sector blind so expect taxes to surpass those of the late 70s – wiping out a lot of these assets
– There’s growing demands from corrupt and racist third world governments, especially in the Caribbean for historical reparations and in the Starmer government and the Blob they have a willing handmaiden. I would expect most assets to be confiscated from Whites directly within 25 years, as Enoch Powell (RIP) predicted.
“While inheritance does go to younger generations, it doesn’t go to *the* *young*. It goes to people in their 50s and 60s.”
Yep, I’m 65 and over the last couple of years inherited modest sums of cash from a couple of deceased relatives, just over ten grand in total. We own our house but the previous generations among our family tended not to, so the sums of money aren’t that great in the big scheme of things.
@yet another Chris
We recognised that problem a few years ago and have written down all the details of bank accounts, savings accounts, premium bonds as well as the contact details of our IFA and solicitor. He knows where to find it.
My siblings and I agreed with the parents that any inheritance should go to their grandchildren (me and siblings children), which suited everybody since it wasn’t a great deal and none of us really needed the money.
When mom died the value of the freehold flat they owned was probably about 90K. Then dad developed Alzheimers and the flat had to be sold to pay for the care home fees, so by the time he died there was nothing left for anyone to inherit.
I suspect this sort of situation will be pretty common and moreso in the future.
BiND, yes I’ve got an appointment with my solicitor a week on Tuesday to give her a detailed list. Also to update my will and power of attorney.
Van_Patten, that’s a gloomy prediction but not without some elements of truth. I’ve certainly thought about what solicitors call ‘estate planning’. I’m not wealthy. Everything I’ve accumulated I’ve earned as an employee and for the last 30 years owning my company. I’ve never inherited anything. I’ve worked for what I’ve got. As it stands, everything will go to my four children (why I’m not wealthy!) equally and grandkids if one of my children dies before me. My solicitor has a scheme in mind. We’ll see.
The most than many of us will see is the value of our parents’ house divided between how many siblings you’ve got. As pointed out by a number of previous contributors, this is less the care home costs. For a married couple there could be two such bequests. An additional factor is how far upmarket those two dying parental couples were, reflected in the value of the houses they lived in.
The best thing you can ever do is to be an only child, marry an only child, direct your stork to affluent parents and check with your spouse that they had done the same!
If you’re not an only child, the house value gets split, and from the social class I’m in and my wife too, we live in a more valuable house than either set of parents. As respectively we are the youngest of each family of siblings, it meant that the eldest of each family got a big chunk of assets to buy a house long ago so there was fuck all left for us apart from the share of the house, and we’ve had to use all such legacies to give our kids a deposit on a house each.
YetanotherChris
I should also point out arguably the most gloomy points I omitted
– NATO is planning for sorties from NATO countries into Russia triggering World War Three (tied into below)
– Our own King is in league with those like Klaus Schwab, George Soros and Bill Gates who believe the population globally should be well under 1 billion. That will mean a lot of people won’t be in a position to be alive let alone enjoy an inheritance.
– Plans for another ‘Lab leak’ style pandemic and complete lockdown for all barring the WEF elite to combat Climate Change are on the WEF and WHO websites.
– Forced vaccinations with lethal chemicals are being ramped up across the globe.
– Bans on meat and diary consumption with replacement by artificial products and insects are coming in the next two decades
– These policies are backed by every single party in the UK (other than Reform UK)
So all in all a pretty gloomy outlook.