Millennials will squander the greatest wealth transfer in history, wealth manager says

Millennials are set to inherit as much as $90 trillion from their parents over the next 20 years, but there’s a good chance they’ll squander it all away.
According to Salvatore Buscemi, a managing partner at family wealth office Brahmin Partners, millennials don’t have the vision or skill to grow the vast wealth they’re inheriting.
“The millennials are very ill-prepared [...] they’re not as well prepared as the wealth-creating generation,” Buscemi told CNBC in an interview.
That’s because, by the time millennials acquire all that wealth, they’ll be well into their 40s and set in their ways.
“They don’t have the skill sets earlier on to be able to do that because they never had to—they were never pushed,” he explained, adding that it’s highly unlikely millennials will be motivated to acquire wealth-building skills.
In Buscemi’s view, millennials are too focused on near-term goals and aren’t interested in growing legacy-building wealth they can pass on to future generations.
Psychologists also say there’s a huge difference between earning wealth and inheriting it. People in the latter camp don’t have the “strong internal locus of control,” psychotherapist Paul Hokemeyer told CNBC.
Nevertheless, millennials have a lot to look forward to over the next few decades.
Unlike boomers, who accumulated massive wealth over the years, millennials got stuck with the inflation bill, not to mention fewer pathways to wealth creation than their parents.
Bridging the financial divide
The so-called “great wealth transfer” between baby boomers and millennials is expected to bridge the financial gap dividing the generations.
Following the pandemic, boomers accounted for the majority of wealth in America—owning nearly 42% of all real estate as well as a sizable chunk of stocks and mutual funds.
While real estate is a major source of wealth for millennials, a housing affordability crisis means only a small portion of this generation can tap into it.
“Millennials own 10 times less wealth compared to boomers,” wrote Patrick Hicks, head of legal at Trust & Will. And it’s not just housing affordability holding them back.
“Building wealth for millennials has been stunted and delayed by a variety of economic events, meaning that they have much less time than boomers had to play catch-up,” he explained.
According to financial wellness company Stackin, events like the 2008 financial crisis, Covid lockdowns, massive tech layoffs, and a lack of job security have made it harder to climb the wealth ladder through employment.
Because of this need to switch jobs every few years, a 2023 Gallup report even called millennials “the job-hopping generation.”
According to Gallup's most recent survey data, 60% of millennials were willing to entertain new job offers, compared to just 45% of workers in other age groups.