Guardian Australia readers have shared their experiences of giving, receiving, or living without inheritance, as economists predict $5.4tn will be passed down from baby boomers over the next two decades. Responses ranged from gratitude to anger, with many highlighting the unequal distribution of wealth.
One reader, who received a $25,000 trust from relatives, said it gave them ‘actual hope of a future where I don’t have to rely on landlords’. Another, expecting $250,000 from their mother, said the money was ‘comforting’ but not essential. However, a single mother’s child noted there is ‘no intergenerational wealth coming my way’, adding that their mother worked multiple jobs and bought her first house late in life.
Several readers expressed concerns about financial abuse of the elderly. One, who worked in aged care, said they had seen ‘appalling behaviour and a lot of bordering on, if not blatant, financial abuse and bullying of older people over assumed inheritance’. Another reader suspected that much of the wealth transfer would go to aged care providers, calling the industry ‘one that requires strict financial regulation’.
A financial adviser reader said their entire estate would go into a family trust for their child and grandchildren, noting ‘the way the world is heading off a cliff, I think my grandchildren will need all the help I can give them’. Meanwhile, a reader in their mid-60s said they had already given money to their sons for housing and expected to leave an estate of $2m to $3m.
Some readers criticised the narrative that all millennials would inherit wealth. One said: ‘I get angry … at the portrayal that millennials all have this wealth coming their way. But it’s not true. The unequal generation of intergenerational wealth is also unequal in how it will be distributed.’
