Leaving Too Much Wealth to Your Heirs?

Take-Away: In a recent survey among millionaires, 70% of the respondents expressed anxiety over leaving too much money to their heirs.

Background: The Motley Fool recently conducted a survey of 2,000 individuals with a net worth over $1.0 million about their attitudes towards inheritances. One of the top concerns reported by 67% of these high net worth individuals was “the possibility of leaving too much money for heirs.” Many of the respondents expressed the concern about “the effects of leaving too much money to their heirs, including the wealth that would be ‘used irresponsibly’ or that ‘would cause beneficiaries to be lazy.’

Conditional Gifts and Bequests: The same survey reported that 85% of these high net worth individuals who had to meet certain conditions to receive their inheritance agreed that it is possible to leave too much money to an heir.

And Yet…: Despite the concerns expressed by these high net worth individuals who responded to the survey, 34% said that they still planned to leave over 50% of their assets to their heirs.

Conclusion: Most financial planners are well aware of Warren Buffett’s 2013 quote: “[T]he perfect inheritance is enough money so that [children] feel they can do anything, but not so much that they could nothing.” The Motley Fool survey suggests that many high net worth individuals feel the same way as Warren Buffett, they just are not yet ready to implement those sentiments in their estate plans.