Thanks Emma! Yep, technology has a massive impact on how we manage things now. There are more DIY tools than ever.

This statistic also feels to me like a quite questionable one. From what I could observe around me, the pattern was more as follow: rich kids go into excellent schools. When they graduate, they get a very good placement through connections or through the school. Thanks to their good placement, they can earn a very high wage and end up contributing to the family wealth. Now, as you mentioned, it may be that some of them earn a very high wage, but fail to contribute to the family wealth as they fail to manage their money wisely and are just spending all of it.
To come back to the wealth consultants and advisors subject, I think you’re entirely right when you mentioned that they will see their market shrinking. With robot-advisors and all the new online investment/saving services, they will be less and less needed. Moreover, the coming generations (Millennials and Zoomers especially) are more willing to try new products/services and are getting better along with technologies leaving even fewer chances to wealth consultants and advisors.
Overall, thank you for your article. It mentions interesting points to reflect on.

Cheers Ed. I think it’s great that even if you might get an inheritance, making sure you already build your own wealth and foundation is important. And, hopefully your in-laws and relatives live as long as possible and you won’t need to worry about that stuff!

Thank you. I will follow this advice. I really appreciate it.

Thanks! This is so helpful, really! It’s not something I can really talk to friends about, and if I do they are as clueless as I am.

I wanted to start off my expressing my condolences for your loss. Nothing can replace the loss of a parent. Vanguard customer service reps are great, but their knowledge of tax laws around inherited assets at both the state and federal level will be quite limited. I would still highly suggest talking to a local tax accountant who deals with estates. There are some very specific rules over how different assets are valued at the time of inheritance (known as “basis”). In the example of stock, I believe your basis would be determined on the date of inheritance regardless of whether the values have gained or lost value since purchase. But it can also get more complicated than this with other types of assets (real estate, businesses, etc). Your inherited basis isn’t always determined at the date of inheritance. For example, when I quickly looked this topic up to refresh my memory I came across an exception where the executor of an estate can set the date of inheritance 6mos after the owner passed away. Depending on the timing, you could actually shield more of those inherited funds from taxation because you might have a higher inherited basis. Best of luck with this process.

Hi Lindsay,
Thank you for saying this – I agree. It’s not just lack of financial education that keeps people from building wealth. Did you know that black families pay 13% more in property taxes than white families in the same situation? https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/07/02/black-property-tax/
This is just one example of the institutional and structural issues that contribute to inequality in this country, and it’s nothing that more education will help.