Wills, Trusts & Estates

Arguments for eliminating the disparagement of inheritance inequality include the right
to property and the merit of individual allocation of capital over government wealth
confiscation and redistribution, but this does not resolve what some describe as the
problem of unequal inheritance. In terms of inheritance inequality, some economists and
sociologists focus on the inter generational transmission of income or wealth which is
said to have a direct impact on one's mobility (or immobility) and class position in
society. Nations differ on the political structure and policy options that govern the
transfer of wealth.
According to the American federal government statistics compiled by Mark Zandi in
1985, the average US inheritance was $39,000. In subsequent years, the overall
amount of total annual inheritance more than doubled, reaching nearly $200 billion. By
2050, there will be an estimated $25 trillion inheritance transmitted across generations.
Some researchers have attributed this rise to the baby boomer generation. Historically,
the baby boomers were the largest influx of children conceived after WW2. For this
reason, Thomas Shapiro suggests that this generation "is in the midst of benefiting from
the greatest inheritance of wealth in history." Inherited wealth may help explain why
many Americans who have become rich may have had a "substantial head start". In
September 2012, according to the Institute for Policy Studies, "over 60 percent" of the
Forbes richest 400 Americans "grew up in substantial privilege", and often (but not
always) received substantial inheritances. The French economist Thomas Piketty
studied this phenomenon in his best-selling book Capital in the Twenty-First Century,
published in 2013.
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