Helping family with living legacies
Rather than focusing on inheritance as the best way to pass on wealth, over-55s are increasingly looking to help their families out financially during their lifetimes. This trend towards ‘living legacies’ has been revealed in recent research1 and has been in part due to increased life expectancy pushing up the average age at which younger generations inherit from their parents. People born in the 1980s are now predicted to receive their inheritance at age 64 on average, compared to 58 for those born in the 1960s.
The fear of running out of money during retirement has previously prevented many older people from offering financial support during their lifetime. This concern appears to be lessening, however, with a third of respondents to the research saying they’d be unwilling to help a family member onto the property ladder without knowing how much they’d need in retirement – compared to half of respondents to the same survey in 2016.
Aviva’s Matt McGill commented, “This increasing tendency towards considering helping out now rather than beneficiaries receiving an inheritance after death is perhaps a reflection of the turbulence and uncertainty that everyone has been through since we previously ran our survey in 2016, and which shows no sign of diminishing. Along with the hardship people have faced, it’s also been a time of reflection for many and this could have included a resolution to live more for the moment and help family and loved ones now.”
1Aviva, 2022