The panel discussed a new report about the generational wealth millennials stand to inherit from their Baby Boomer parents, reports Media Matters.
The $68 trillion expected to be passed down to the next generation, beginning in 2020, can be broken down into four methods of transfer: gifting to heirs inter vivos (while alive), bequeathing to heirs (at death), donating to charity inter vivos or bequeathing to charity.
According to the Cerulli report, the great majority of this wealth will be transferred at death — nearly 93 percent — with the rest donated to charity and gifted to heirs through inter vivos giving.
The panel seemed concerned that millennials are focused on the wrong things—like climate change—and not how to handle their incoming wealth wisely.
Heather Higgins from Independent Women’s Voice suggested that “there doesn’t seem to be a lot of long-term looking. A lot of [millennials] think the world’s going to end in 12 years… it ain’t.”
“It’s long been understood in sociology circles that the difference between being poor and poverty is the mindset about time. And if you are focused on this week or this month or even just this year, you are likely to be in a poverty situation for a very long time,” Higgins continued.
“The higher up you go the income ladder, the higher the probability that people are not just thinking about my lifetime, but the next lifetime and maybe even the generation after that. And the real correlate between doing well is how far ahead you can look and take seriously,” she said.
The panel also focused on the 618,000 millennial millionaires already in existence, which make up 2 percent of millionaires overall and less than 1 percent of millennials. They suggested millennials aren’t ready for this kind of responsibility despite 55 percent of millennials being well into their 30’s.
“This is going to be a very short transfer window. Meaning that the opportunity to go out and invest in things they don’t understand, not setting up their next generation,” said author Chris Hogan.
“This is the mindset. Legacies don’t happen by accident,” he said. He then went on to use the Vanderbilts, Marriotts and Hiltons as examples of how to “deal with money” and set up the next generation.
“Let’s get rid of the death tax, these people get their money, and either invest it in new companies, give it away, philanthropy, do whatever they want with it. They’ll do a much better job with the money than will Uncle Sam,” said Deroy Murdock of the National Review.
“Quite the contrast, right, from these conversations we have about millennials wanting, you know, being supportive of leftist economic policies or the like, your point is, maybe they shouldn’t be,” said host, Connell McShane.
The vast majority of millennial millionaires reportedly have a net wealth between approximately $1 million and $2.5 million. Nearly 60 percent of them live in the progressive states of New York or California, with a large number living in the Silicon Valley area who presumably work in tech.
While 618,000 millennial millionaires may seem like a high number, there are currently over 70 million millennials living in the U.S.
