In what is a harsh reality for many aging Baby Boomers, over the next quarter century or so, their nest eggs will begin to be passed on. However, a massive portion of that wealth will be passed not down, but sideways.
A new UBS Global Wealth Report estimates the total amount changing hands in that span to be a whopping $84 trillion. Eventually that money will trickle down to younger generations. However, it will move laterally first—to a surviving spouse, usually a woman. UBS estimates that $9 trillion of the total will be shifted horizontally between spouses in what it calls, fittingly, the "Great Horizontal Wealth Transfer."
With people living longer and having increasing debt, they often have nothing left to leave their kids too.
Ernie Burns of Burns Estate Planning & Wealth Advisors concedes most Americans shouldn't expect a windfall of inheritance.
"A large portion... will inherit bills and wills, not any actual assets."
Burns encouraged actively saving toward retirement over hoping for inheritance.
"Putting something away every month, is the only way you can make sure that you have something. If you do inherit something, great... but I wouldn't count on it."