Wednesday 15 November 2006

Will Uncle Fred Leave me a Fortune?

I must admit that the question of inheritance doesn't take up much of my time - I expect to have enough accumulated to fund my own retirement, and there's a good chance my parents will still be around when I retire - I have a Great Aunt still alive in her 90s, and two of my Grandparents lived to 94. So if I ever inherit anything I'll probably be too old to enjoy it anyhow.

However, for a lot a Baby Boomers who have been "living in the moment" and are only now starting to get concerned about where the money will come from in their retirement, the possibility of an inheritance bailing them out may have been in the back of their mind.

I had read that this hope was misplaced, with the current crop of retirees planning to spend their money, and possibly use a reverse-mortgage to spend the family home as well. So they'd bit little left for the Baby Boomer's to inherit.

But a new Citibank report contradicts this belief. Apparently most retirees are living within their means and around 85% plan on leaving a bequest to their children.

The average amount expected is $427,000, but some are planning on leaving a lot more:

Expected size Proportion of
of Estate Retirees
<$50,000 9%
$50,000 - $199,000 10%
$200,000 - $299,999 17%
$300,000 - $399,999 12%
$400,000 - $499,999 10%
$500,000 - $699,999 10%
$700,000 - $899,999 2%
>$900,000 15%

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1 comment:

Kira said...

That's what they think they will leave - I doubt most will leave as much as they think. End of life care costs are extremely high and they could live for a lot longer than they think!