Mom & Pops’ Estate Planning Now Kids’ Play

Letter to Ephesians: Seniors may be facing one of the biggest challenges of their parenting lives: How to pass down to their Gen Xers & Millennials the huge concentration of wealth they’ve amassed. But will the kids appreciate or be given a penny’s thought to it?

The WSJ naturally focused on the “ripple effect” the “great wealth transfer” will have on the real estate market and especially waxed long about how “roughly 1.2 million individuals with net worths of $5 million or more are projected to pass down more than $38 trillion globally.” But consider too the millions more who have net worths in the pauper’s one to two million dollars range. They count towards an even far bigger transfer pot to stir, don’t they? Of course they do.

So, suggests the newspaper with its business pants suit on, NOW is the time to bring “children into conversations about inheritance … and making high [or littler]-stakes real-estate decisions.” In fact, the WSJ says, many parents, especially at the highest end of the real estate market, “aren’t [even] waiting for kids to inherit their wealth.” Rather, “they are buying them luxury properties sooner.” The ripple effect throughout the entire realty industry that caters to a “younger generation of buyers” can be imagined. The inflated selling prices of any kind of home thanks to this trend is also helping to drive up already inflated “fair market values” for everyone. That may be of little concern to the “super wealthy.” But to the not so got rocks commoners, it does matter, at least, from an estate planning perspective. Is it time for you, Moms & Pops, to have that second “big sexy talk” with the kids as well as the family lawyer?

Davd Soul