More people are ‘relying on mom and dad’ for their retirement plan — banking on an inheritance that may never come. Know the dangers

About 1 in 14 have even taken on more debt now because they’re expecting a windfall later, while 1 in 10 are saving less for retirement because they’re counting on an inheritance.

But these assumptions could leave them in the lurch, especially as 84% of parents in the survey said they’d spend their savings on themselves before leaving an inheritance.

“Kids are not saving like their parents were,” Patrick Simasko, elder law attorney and financial adviser at Simasko Law, told USA Today. “They spend their money now because they’re relying on mom and dad to fund their retirement.”

The Great Wealth Transfer isn’t great for everyone

Turns out, the vast majority of adults (82%) who assume they’ll get an inheritance have never confirmed it with their parents, according to Ethos. And Gen Zers were the most likely to make this assumption (90%).

To be fair, there are good reasons why so many young adults are relying on the Bank of Mom and Dad.

Rising costs are making it harder to achieve traditional milestones. “From marriage and homeownership to starting a family, many Gen Z and Millennial adults report delaying major milestones, and an increasing number worry those goals may be out of reach altogether,” according to Northwestern Mutual’s 2026 Planning & Progress Study.

Nearly 3 in 4 Gen Zers (72%) and more than half of millennials (56%) say they’ve postponed at least one milestone because of financial challenges. For example, 31% of Gen Zers say they’ve postponed buying a house, while 20% have delayed marriage.

The rising cost of living

Home prices jumped 45% nationwide from 2020 to 2025, according to Zillow. Mortgage rates remain stubbornly high, while inflation drives up the price of almost everything from gas to groceries, reducing the purchasing power of the average American.

Even raising kids has become a significant financial stressor, with 7 in 10 Gen Z and millennial parents in the Northwestern Mutual study saying they spend as much or more on their children every month as they do on their rent or mortgage.

Despite this — or perhaps because of it — the study found Gen Zers and millennials are “starting to save for retirement years before their parents and grandparents, and are seeking professional financial guidance at higher rates and earlier in life than prior generations.”

But they could also be wrongly assuming that the Mom and Dad bank is flush with cash they’ll later receive.

Indeed, baby boomers are sitting on a big chunk of the nation’s wealth. As part of what’s dubbed the Great Wealth Transfer, trillions of dollars are expected to pass on to younger generations over the next 20 years.

Though estimates vary, the latest projection from Visa Business and Economic Insights (VBEI) is that $36 trillion in baby boomer wealth will be passed down to Gen X and millennials over the next 20 years.

That’s after removing the top 1% of households (the outliers) and accounting for retirement spending, taxes, fees and charitable bequests, which will drop an estimated $93 trillion in assets — more than three times the U.S. GDP — down to $36 trillion that will be transferred to younger generations.

That works out to about $515,000 per inheriting household. “But this is far from a broad redistribution of wealth: these transfers will be highly uneven, reinforcing pockets of affluence and quietly shaping who benefits most,” according to VBEI.

After all, not all baby boomers have ‘great wealth’ to pass down. VBEI points out that 41% of older homeowners (aged 65 to 79) still carry mortgage debt. And, of mortgage-holding households headed by someone 65+, nearly half are facing “moderate-to-severe cost burdens.”

Take control of your retirement

Adult children’s assumptions about an inheritance may not match their parents’ plans for that money.

The Ethos survey found that parents are “putting their own needs first” in retirement, with 84% saying they’d use that money for retirement or care before protecting an inheritance.

More than half (58%) expect late-life expenses, such as medical care, to eat up half or more of what they would otherwise leave as an inheritance, while 15% think these costs could eat up all (or nearly all) of it.

That’s why, even if you’ve explicitly confirmed your inheritance, you may not necessarily be able to count on it anyway.

Americans are living longer, which means their savings will get drawn down further in retirement. They may require costly long-term care or medical treatments not covered by Medicare. The final years of life can, for many people, be very expensive — and dying is costly, too.

Younger generations relying on an inheritance can start by talking to their parents about it (if they haven’t already) and getting explicit details about what that actually means. These discussions should be ongoing, particularly after major life events.