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US added over 1,000 new millionaires a day last year, says report<\/p>\n
Wealth grew disproportionately quickly last year in the United States, where over 379,000 people became new U.S. dollar millionaires, more than a 1,000 a day, a recent report showed.<\/p>\n
With great wealth comes great responsibility.<\/p>\n
Baby boomers are set to give<\/a> a staggering $124 trillion<\/a> through 2048 to heirs, according to market researcher Cerulli Advisors in a 2024\u00a0report<\/a>. But are the next generations prepared to accept it or will they become \u201cshirtsleeves to shirtsleeves in three generations<\/a>\u201d?<\/p>\n That depends on the work that both givers and receivers do before the handoff, experts say. Without proper communication, guidance and planning, wealth and legacies can be lost to taxes, squandering, conflicts or simply forgotten. A 20-year\u00a0research<\/a>\u00a0project on 3,200 families by wealth consultancy Williams Group shows 70% of wealthy families lose their wealth by the second generation, and 90% by the third.<\/p>\n \u201cMoney and wealth can hurt beneficiaries in numerous ways, but the way to have the money and wealth help them are just as vast,\u201d said\u00a0Jillyn Hess-Verdon, team leader of Frost Brown Todd\u2019s family office practice.<\/p>\n What\u2019s the most important step to smooth transfer?<\/p>\n Lack of communication and trust<\/a> within the family is the leading cause (60%) of wealth transfer failure and 25% is due to heirs\u2019 inadequate preparation, knowledge and skills to manage an inheritance, the Williams study said.<\/p>\n It\u2019s \u201ctouchy<\/a> to bring up these subjects and split money before death,\u201d said Jennifer Baick,\u00a0head of Mercer Advisors\u2019 financial planning group.<\/p>\n Two-thirds of givers admit to procrastinating family wealth-transfer conversations, according to a national RBC Wealth Management survey. Only 39% have provided guidance or instructions to their heirs on what they should do with their inheritance, including how to spend and invest it or give it away to charities.<\/p>\n Nearly all (99%) of beneficiaries want to honor the wishes of their benefactors and be good stewards of their family\u2019s wealth, RBC said. However, their top concern is being financially responsible with what they inherit. Only 54 % of them said they\u2019re very prepared to receive an inheritance.<\/p>\n Can beneficiaries open talks or is that tacky?<\/p>\n Yes, when givers are reluctant to discuss money, heirs can encourage and frame talks with family dynamics in mind<\/a>, Hess-Verdon said.<\/p>\n \u201cIf ‘the kids’ are worried about the one sibling or family member who is always asking for money or ‘loans’ this can be a difficult subject to bring up with the parents,\u201d she said. \u201cHowever, a responsible family member, who is in the process of setting up their own estate plan and has an upcoming meeting with an attorney, can often ask the parent for their advice in making these decisions, and the parent will often relay the important plan that they set up with their attorney as an example.\u201d<\/p>\n Advisers, lawyers and accountants are third parties who can help<\/a> neutralize conversations, keeping them focused on planning, experts said.<\/p>\n Beneficiaries don\u2019t have to rely on the same professionals as their parents or grandparents, either. They should find ones with whom they feel comfortable, Baick said.<\/p>\n \u201cFirst and second generations engage differently,\u201d she said. \u201cSecond generation is more digitally native and interface and interact with investment choices. First generation may have all their people, lawyers and accountants in a building.\u201d<\/p>\n How else can beneficiaries help themselves?<\/p>\n \u201cFinancial literacy is important for young people,\u201d said Jennifer Quent, director of family office services at Kaufman Rossin.<\/p>\n High-net-worth families with complex estates often use a family office to help, she said. Heirs \u201cmay have to learn about different kinds of trusts<\/a>, taxes<\/a>, gift giving. There\u2019s a lot of education involved,\u201d Quent said.<\/p>\n Family offices<\/a> are private wealth management\u00a0firms that help wealthy families manage everything from investments, taxes, and legal affairs to philanthropic activities, day-to-day concierge services and even estate planning and education with heirs-to-be. There are different levels of family offices, but they\u2019re usually reserved for families with a net worth of at least $30 million.<\/p>\n For those with fewer resources and less complex estates, virtual family office tools like those from leafplanner or Farther Financial can help families collect, organize, store and communicate documents and plans, Quent said.<\/p>\n Without any knowledge of the assets, where they are<\/a> and what the plans are for them, or even whom to call to find out, receivers will be left in a \u201cfrantic tizzy because they might find they have to make all these big decisions within 9 months (of someone\u2019s death),\u201d Baick said.<\/p>\n Medora Lee is a money, markets and personal finance reporter at USA TODAY. You can reach her at\u00a0mjlee@usatoday.com<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0\u00a0subscribe to our free Daily Money newsletter<\/a>\u00a0for personal finance tips and business news every Monday through Friday morning.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"US added over 1,000 new millionaires a day last year, says report Wealth grew disproportionately quickly last year…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":72070,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[177],"tags":[829,17804,49528,2117,5580,49526,79,18,13564,3260,42024,3427,846,3596,858,19,4518,13567,17,1212,14610,49527,723,1216,1231,1221,6406,713,1234,234,235,786,1215,12084,1217,11388,49525,1214,1213,1230,1209,33866,1229,716,2050,1211,1210,4083],"class_list":{"0":"post-72069","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-personal-finance","8":"tag-and","9":"tag-asset","10":"tag-asset-u0026-portfolio-management","11":"tag-baby","12":"tag-baby-boomers","13":"tag-boomers","14":"tag-business","15":"tag-eire","16":"tag-estate","17":"tag-estate-planning","18":"tag-estate-taxes","19":"tag-explainer","20":"tag-financial","21":"tag-financial-planning","22":"tag-financial-planning-u0026-management","23":"tag-ie","24":"tag-inheritance","25":"tag-inheritance-u0026-estate-planning","26":"tag-ireland","27":"tag-know","28":"tag-last","29":"tag-last-will-and-testament","30":"tag-management","31":"tag-modular","32":"tag-modular-story","33":"tag-neutral","34":"tag-not","35":"tag-overall","36":"tag-overall-neutral","37":"tag-personal-finance","38":"tag-personalfinance","39":"tag-planning","40":"tag-point","41":"tag-portfolio","42":"tag-story","43":"tag-taxes","44":"tag-testament","45":"tag-the","46":"tag-to","47":"tag-to-the-point","48":"tag-ttp","49":"tag-ttp-explainer-not-visual","50":"tag-ttp-what-we-know","51":"tag-u0026","52":"tag-visual","53":"tag-we","54":"tag-what","55":"tag-will"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72069","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72069"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72069\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/72070"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72069"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72069"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72069"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}