Carol Willison has made lots of financial sacrifices for her two children over the years, including paying most of her older daughter’s medical school tuition. But Willison’s generosity has reached its limits.
Not only doesn’t the 60-year-old Seattle woman plan to leave her daughters an inheritance when she dies, she’s trying to spend every last dime on herself before she goes.
“My goal is when they carry me away in that box that my bank account is going to say zero,” Willison said. “I’m going to spoil myself now.”
Upending the conventional notion of parents carefully tending their financial estates to be passed down at the reading of their wills, many baby boomers say they instead plan to spend the money on themselves while they’re alive.
In a survey of millionaire boomers by investment firm U.S. Trust, only 49 percent said it was important to leave money to their children when they die. The low rate was a surprise for a company that for decades has advised wealthy people how to leave money to their heirs.
Whether to leave an inheritance is a decision increasingly faced by many of the nation’s 77 million baby boomers, and it’s becoming all the more complicated by the troubled economy.
Boomers are caught between the desire to enjoy their golden years and the pressure of various financial concerns, such as fear of outliving their savings and the need to help parents, children or siblings who have their own money struggles.
Many boomers, who range in age from roughly 47 to 65, simply believe that after years of hard work they can spend their money as they choose, experts say.
“I do not see my baby boomer clients giving up a vacation or wine or dinners out so that they can leave more money to their children, because they feel like they’ve already done it for their kids,” said Susan Colpitts, executive vice president of a wealth management firm in Norfolk, Va.
Many boomers already are giving the equivalent of an inheritance, except they’re doling out the cash while they’re still alive, said Ken Dychtwald, chief executive of research firm Age Wave.
They’re supporting elderly parents, adult children or other family members who are suffering professional or financial woes. Even people who are leaving an inheritance agonize over those risks. Norma Goldberger and her husband plan to leave money to their three grown children with proceeds from the sale of a successful medical business.
But the Ohio couple have struggled with sending the right message and have revised their will three times, she said.
“From being self-made I want them to feel (the money) is precious,” Goldberger said. “If they get a whole lump at once maybe they wouldn’t, and they might blow it all. Not that they’re capricious people, but money can corrupt.”
Others have held off on inheritances because they’re scared of running out of money in a shaky economy. Even the well-to-do have turned cautious, especially out of fear of spiraling medical costs.
Walter Hamilton is a reporter for Los Angeles Times
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