Baby Boomers Fear Small Inheritances

In Empty Nest Eggs: Inherit the Wind; There’s Little Else Left, NY Times, March 26, 2006, Eduardo Porter reports that:

As the baby boomers deal with the final days of their aged parents, a question often lurks, sometimes unspoken, in the pragmatic discussions about nursing homes, retirement savings, the future of the family house: After all the living is done, will anything be left over for an inheritance?

After all, the evidence shows that baby boomers are going to need it: working Americans are unprepared for their own retirement, economists say. They have little savings of their own, and are facing the possible erosion of Social Security and the limits of company pensions.

Parents often rely on their children for assistance in making a wide variety of financial and health care decisions.  Parents seem to have a “special trust” for advice from their children.  The reality is, however, that many children will “lead” their parents to make decisions which they think will increase the likelihood of a larger windfall upon the death of the parents.

Attorneys and others involved in the estate planning field needs to recognize that a child’s self-interest may play a significant part in the advice he or she provides a parent.