Solutions for the Baby Boomers in the Inheritance Crisis

As I have previously discussed, the baby boomers appear to be stuck between a rock and a hard place on the inheritance issue. It appears that the baby boomers will not receive as large of an inheritance from their aging parents and might need to support their parents. It was also reported that the wealthiest citizens will likely have the most income to bequest to their children. The reason that was given was that it was because they were the wealthiest citizens, it made sense for them to have money left to give to their children a large inheritance. However, that might not be the only reason. Another reason why these people might be able to give a large inheritance is because these people have already taken the necessary steps to ensure that they do not deplete their financial resources they would need to support themselves. One of these steps is speaking to a financial advisor.

One of the major problems that arose from the current situation was a lack of communication on both parties. As I have previously discussed, parents might feel ashamed to talk to their children about their bad financial situation, and children might feel guilty asking their parents about their inheritance. However, this might not be prevalent with wealthy parents and children who may already have their own financial advisors and an open dialogue about the status of the financial situation of the family. Therefore, parents and children might want to consider talking with a financial advisor to handle these family financial issues or at least begin to communicate among these financial issues.

See Charlotte Ito, WSJ Report on Inheritances, Legal Tastings – Wine Law Blog, June 11, 2012.