• 15
  • September
    2011

It may be traditional for families to pass wealth from one generation to another, but many baby boomers are breaking that tradition.

According to a survey of millionaire baby boomers conducted by a national investment firm, only 49 percent said it was important to them that they leave money to their children. The boomer generation, aged 47 to 65, believe they deserve to spend their hard-earned money while they're alive instead of working on an estate plan that saves money for the next generation.

It's not that these middle-aged spenders are selfish. On the contrary, many have sacrificed and saved so they could give generously during their lifetime and improve their children's quality of life. Some have financed their children's college, graduate school and medical school. Others have helped the kids with a down payment for a house, paid for lavish weddings and financed family travel.

Many individuals are concerned, with their long life expectancy, about outliving their money. Parents who have lived below their means their entire lives are afraid their children will squander their wealth and have nothing to show for it.

One 60-year-old woman is typical of boomers who are spending their children's inheritance. Her goal is to spend her last dime on her dying day. Florida estate planning attorneys, however, observe that very few people achieve that goal. Every generation is well advised to plan not only to preserve assets and income for their old age, but to ensure that whatever's left goes to their children, not to the tax collector or the government.

Source: L.A. Times "Baby boomers to their children: You'll inherit the wind" Sept. 8, 2011