My millennial friends seem constantly stressed about money, even the ones with good jobs. They carry massive mortgages, pay crushing childcare expenses, and their salaries have not kept pace with inflation. When they go on holiday, their vacations are often subsidized by their parents—aging boomers, who amassed small fortunes during an era of growing prosperity, when property was cheap and saving was possible.
Many of these boomers’ adult children are counting on receiving substantial inheritances in the future. Research shows that they are not wrong: in the next few years, an estimated $1 trillion will move from Canadian boomers to their heirs. Katrina Onstad takes a close look at this looming phenomenon in “The Jackpot Generation,” her juicy and eye-opening November cover story in Maclean’s.
In Onstad’s timely story, money managers describe the complex intergenerational dynamics of wealth transfer, estate planning and what happens when things don’t work out as expected. She also explores the societal consequences of a winner-takes-all inheritance-based economy. Onstad writes: “Canada’s 20th century was built on the dream of mobility via meritocracy. But if inheritance determines who succeeds and who doesn’t, the downstream effects for Canada could be devastating.”
—Sarah Fulford, editor-in-chief
