We are in the midst of the largest transfer of wealth in history. The elderly

[JT45242]

5. Not really unless you change the inheritance tax laws...

Only a very small percentage of families should pay inheritance tax based on current laws which require assets of several millions of dollars. So, the vast majority of inheritance is from middle or lower class folks with no tax. For example, when my mother died we all got about 50K which was not taxed.

Of the people who have enough money to pay the inheritance tax, they overwhelmingly set up survivorship trusts, or similar entities, to bypass the inheritance tax. So, my friend whose mother has over 10 million, will pay no taxes on it as it is part of the trust.

Do some dumb people not protect assets from inheritance tax, yes. There was a time when things like a football team could not be put in survivorship trusts, I remember speculation that Mike Brown, owner of the Bengals would have to sell the team to avoid the huge taxes that would prevent him from passing on the team to his family, but I haven't heard any talk of that in recent years, so I'll bet that the laws allow them to do that with a multi billion dollar asset as well now.