What do you do as a 20-something-year-old with millions, perhaps even billions, of dollars suddenly in your hands? For the slim cohort those Champagne problems will soon apply to, many don’t know.
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- With $124T expected to be passed down between generations through 2048, wealthy boomers are preparing for the Great Wealth Transfer.
- However, most Americans expecting to inherit financial windfalls aren’t prepared for it.
But their parents are hoping the answer isn’t: immediately buy a private jet, squabble with siblings over money, and become an out-of-touch, unmotivated snob.
To make sure it isn’t, many are sending their heirs to multiday retreats to learn how not to blow it when those life-changing sums eventually hit.
Making sure the (rich) kids are alright
Once a niche service, “nearly every multifamily office, bank and peer-membership group” now offers its own next-gen wealth coaching program, per The Wall Street Journal.
- Bank of America’s three-day boot camp for the children of clients worth $10m+ had a 120-person waitlist last fall.
- Chicago’s BDT & MSD invites relatable mentors, like Walmart heir Lukas Walton, to talk to its clients’ kids during the firm’s weeklong summer camp.
- At the three-day retreat hosted by R360, a peer-to-peer network for families worth $100m+, a wealth coach teaches a room full of college-age-plus kids how to make the wealth their parents built last beyond their generation, live purposeful lives, and use the funds in productive ways.
The lessons often cover financial and investing literacy, while some focus on more specific topics, like board room etiquette and managing conflicts with family members.
They’re also safe spaces for addressing what are usually unrelatable issues that stem from having exorbitant wealth, like:
- How to travel with poorer friends
- Handling nepo-baby criticisms
- Bringing up prenups with partners (the answer: blame it on your parents)
Not all trust fund babies are going to camp…
Some boomers are treating their adult children like, well, adults.
- Many are going the old-fashioned route, leaving it up to lawyers and advisors to orchestrate “trust reveal” meetings, when kids discover just how much their parents are leaving them and the stipulations to accessing that money.
- Niche financial advising-therapy hybrid services like Continuity Family Business Consulting have also been supercharged by the Great Wealth Transfer, specializing in helping families “prevent, manage and heal from conflict over business and money,” per The New York Times.
- Meanwhile, others are choosing to dole out inheritances while they're still around to see their kids and grandkids benefit from it, helping out with tuition and housing costs — though a few are already regretting it.
Wealth
