Millennials stand to become the richest generation in history, after $90 trillion wealth transfer | CNN Business (2024)

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Millennials stand to become the richest generation in history, after $90 trillion wealth transfer | CNN Business? ›

Millennials are set to inherit as much as $90 trillion in assets before 2044, a new report shows. Many millennials are currently grasping in frustration at long-held American Dreams like homeownership, a steady job and an affordable cost of living.

The report said an estimated $90 trillion of assets will change hands, “making affluent millennials the richest generation in history.” For generations who stand to do the inheriting, it may be a much-needed injection of cash.

Another reason Lee sees a rosy time ahead for stocks: Over the next 20 years, millennials are set to inherit as much as $90 trillion from the baby boomer generation, by some estimates. ″[It's] one of the largest wealth transfers ever in history, it's more net worth than the entire net worth of China,” Lee said.

In the U.S. alone, Knight Frank said the shift would see $90 trillion of assets move between generations, “making affluent millennials the richest generation in history.”

Knight Frank's 2024 Wealth Report found that, over the next 20 years, $90 trillion in assets will be transferred between generations in the US alone. This means that millennials are expected to be five times richer in 2030 as the assets begin to change hands.

Ultimately, this wealth shift is a result of inheritance from prior generations, largely involving property but also other assets. It will bring “seismic” changes to how wealth is put to use, said Liam Bailey, global head of research at Knight Frank, in a statement.

When Millennials Make the 1% Mark — For Their Age Group. Consider that millennials are toward the younger end of earners, which plays a role in where they fall on the net worth continuum. “They hit the top 25% at around $50,000 and the top 1% at about $175,000,” Jennings said.

For example, the top 1 percent of households hold 30.6 percent of the total wealth, according to the Federal Reserve. But just the top 0.1 percent own 14 percent of the total wealth, giving them a stunning average of more than $1.52 billion per household.

The bible says that the wealth of the wicked is laid up for the just (Proverbs 13:22). God intends to transfer wealth to Christians. You must be positioned to receive this transfer. That position is being in faith to receive it.

The top 1% of American earners now control more wealth than the nation's entire middle class, federal data show. More than one-quarter of all household wealth, 26.5%, belongs to Americans who earn enough money to rank in the top percentile by income, according to Federal Reserve statistics through mid-2023.

Is Mark Zuckerberg a millennial? ›

Mark Zuckerberg, perhaps one of the most famous millennials, grew Facebook from a college directory into a powerful and influential social networking website over the course of 10 years.

There are several successful Gen-Xers, despite their label of being “slackers.” Entrepreneurs Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, Larry Page, Sergey Brin, Jack Dorsey and Mark Cuban are amongst the most prominent of this cohort.

It looks like there's more good news on the way for me and all my latte-sipping, Netflix-binging friends, as the 2024 wealth report by real estate agent Knight Frank has concluded that millennials are on track to become the richest generation in history!

While it's true the average millennial has 30% less wealth at age 35 than boomers at the same age, the richest 10% of millennials have 20% more wealth than the richest boomers did.

Millennials Are Projected To Inherit a Great Deal of Wealth

By 2030, millennials will hold five times as much wealth as they have today — and are “expected to inherit more than $68 trillion from their predecessors in the Great Transfer of Wealth” — according to a Coldwell Banker report.

Millennials could stand to inherit trillions worth of property and property assets passed down by ancestors in the next 20 years. Millennials could potentially become the wealthiest generation ever, according to estate agent Knight Frank's 2024 Wealth Report.

By Knight Frank's estimation, this shift will make affluent millennials “the richest generation in history.” Previous reports show this figure at a lower $84 trillion, but nonetheless confirm a shake-up in the foundations of spending power across the globe.

U.S. wealth distribution 1990-2023, by generation

In comparison, millennials own around 9.2 percent of total wealth in the U.S. In terms of population distribution, there is almost an equal share of millennials and baby boomers in the United States.

At age 38, the average age of older millennials in 2022, our model predicted that the typical family would have about $95,000 in median wealth based on how all generations fared at the same average age. Instead, the typical older millennial had over $130,000.