The World’s Richest Will Transfer $31 Trillion—Mostly to Gen X—by 2033, Study Finds

Within the next decade, 1.2 million people worth at least US$5 million will transfer an estimated US$31 trillion to their heirs, according to a new study. Most of this money is going to individuals in their mid-to-late 40s, who are at the tail end of what is known as Generation X, Altrata said in the report. That’s contrary to a common view that much of the upcoming wealth transfer will affect millennials—those born from the early 1980s to mid-1990s—or even Gen Z, those born in the late 1990s to the early 2010s, the report said.

In North America, the average age of children who are inheriting wealth from ultra-wealthy parents (those with at a net worth of at least US$30 million) is 46.1 years, while those inheriting from the very wealthy (those with a net worth of US$5 million to US$30 million) is 47.6 years, the report said. According to the firm’s research, the average age of those expected to transfer their wealth within the decade is 75, with 25% aged 80 or more. Only about 10% of the individuals passing on their wealth are women, the report said.

“Family dynamics will tend to be one of the biggest hurdles to overcome in the transition process, given often contrasting intergenerational worldviews, business outlooks and legacy aspirations,” the report said. “More often than not, succession will not only involve the handover of family wealth but also a transfer of values.” Those issues promise to be thorny given the current backdrop of “more frequent geopolitical conflict, rising political populism, heightened trade restrictions, widespread anti-elite and anti-immigrant sentiment, more extreme climate events, and growing fiscal pressures from aging populations,” Altrata said.

For more information see Abby Schultz “The World’s Richest Will Transfer $31 Trillion—Mostly to Gen X—by 2033, Study Finds“, June 12, 2024.

Special thanks to Joel C. Dobris (Professor of Law, UC Davis School of Law) for bringing this article to my attention.