Whose responsibility is it to start a conversation about the parents’ wills? It’s frequently awkward for both parents and their adult children. While the older generation often finds it difficult to talk about death, the younger generation has much less difficulty. As my aunt recently commented on the disparity, its because her generation are much closer to the end of their lives!
Two years ago the Allainz life insurance company conducted a survey to study the attitudes, hopes, worries, priorities and goals of both the elder generation and their heirs. Their key findings are presented in the” Seven Myths of the American Legacy”. These findings are also applicable I believe to Canadians. In order not to make this post too long, I will write a couple of posts summarizing the survey results.
Myth #1 - Today’s legacy is like any other generation’s
The magnitude of the transfer of money and property is completely unprecedented and will dwarf the amount of money transferred by previous generations. The over 65 population was the poorest a few decades ago and is now one of the wealthiest as a result of stock market growth, house prices going through the roof and corporate pensions and government benefits. This allows the elder generation to maintain and even increase their wealth throughout their later years.
Families as we all know are more complex, more varied and more dispersed than before. Yesterday I spoke with a gentleman with 4 children and they all lived in different provinces. Because of the size of the boomer generation, today’s elders will have more children to deal with as they try to equitably divide up their inheritance. In addition, we have seen high divorce rates, remarriages, step children, step grandchildren as well as children from multiple marriages. The growing family complexity makes inheritances more difficult to plan, communicate and execute. Elders with step children are less confident their legacy will be successfully transferred and are also less likely to feel they should initiate a conversation with their heirs. They are also twice as likely to think their heirs might accuse them of squandering their inheritance.
Lots of food for thought eh?
