Experts say baby boomers will give more than $50 trillion to their heirs. But for many, health care costs will claim the bulk of that wealth.

Experts say baby boomers will give more than $50 trillion to their heirs. But for many, health care costs will claim the bulk of that wealth.

The story goes that baby boomers are going to give tens of trillions of dollars to their heirs over the next few decades.

The “generational wealth transfer” has become a media fascination, both for its eye-popping size and because it might help younger generations as they face doubts about their financial security.

That shift is already in the works, and will continue for a couple of decades. According to wealth management firm Cerulli Associates, some $53 trillion will be passed down from boomers to their Gen X, millennial and Gen Z heirs, as well as to charities. That includes both gifts during their lifetimes and inheritances afterward.

But the overwhelming cost of health care for older people means most people in those later generations won’t inherit much, even if their elders seem well-off today.

  • Aux@lemmy.world
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    11 months ago

    That has nothing to do with capitalism. Germany and UK are pretty capitalist (probably more capitalist than US) and yet they either have a functioning private medicine or a completely nationalised one.

    • HerrBeter@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      Regulations are inefficiencies, because corporations with profit motive will of course make good decisions for everyone

    • Chriswild@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      Lol “it’s not capitalism, because a nationalized healthcare is capitalism”

      The profit motive of capitalist controlled entities is completely capitalism; it’s basically a textbook case of capitalism. Don’t fool yourself by saying the countries with more socialized healthcare are somehow more capitalist to the one that doesn’t.

    • sparky@lemmy.federate.cc@lemmy.federate.cc
      0·
      11 months ago

      Germany and the UK are demonstrably less capitalist than the US, both because they are social democracies with large, taxpayer-funded social welfare systems, and because their economies are significantly more regulated by both state policies and widespread labor unions.