Kiplinger: “Why So Many Families Are Unprepared for the Great Wealth Transfer — and What You Can Do About it”
Kiplinger, September 8, 2026 — “Passing down the wealth you’ve built over a lifetime, with wisdom and grace, is good. Passing on your values along with the money? Even better, explains reporter Diane Harris in today’s article on Kiplinger.
She explains that over the next 20 years or so, U.S. households are expected to pass an estimated $124 trillion in financial assets to heirs and other beneficiaries, according to Cerulli Associates, a financial services research firm. That includes some $85 trillion going to the Gen X and millennial offspring of boomer and Silent Generation parents, with many trillions more headed to surviving spouses and charity.
Experts are calling it the greatest wealth transfer in history, and the drumbeat heralding its arrival grows louder every day.
But only four in 10 parents in the Kiplinger–Morning Consult survey say they have a will, just over one-third have designated beneficiaries on retirement accounts or life insurance policies, and a scant 14% have written a letter of instruction outlining their wishes. While wealthier families are far more likely to have the legal paperwork drawn up, but large swaths of them still go without. About one-third of parents with estates worth more than $500,000, for instance, don’t have a will, and nearly half haven’t documented what they want to happen to their personal possessions.
CFP Marguerita Cheng, CEO of Blue Ocean Global Wealth in Gaithersburg, Maryland says that once the documents are drawn up, you’ll need to communicate that information to your children and other loved ones. Let them know where the papers are stored, whether you place them in a digital file, a physical binder or both. And it’s not a one-and-done exercise; you’ll want to revisit and update, as needed, every few years and after major life milestones.
“The plans that worked for you in your fifties may need to be adapted in your sixties, as well as once you retire, when your children get married, or you have grandchildren, and then again in your seventies and eighties,” says Cheng, noting that it be a balancing act regarding how can families navigate the competing, compelling needs of both generations. “While parents don’t want to give away too much during their lifetime, the flip side is that if you wait until you’re gone, did your money really have the greatest impact it could have?”
Cheng suggests putting parameters around the financial help you offer now. For instance, you might provide money for a specific purpose rather than ongoing, unrestricted gifts — say, supplying the money for a down payment, paying for a grandchild’s music lessons or sleepaway camp, or contributing to a 529 college-savings plan.
