Do people plan to leave bequests? Do they have wills?

TitleDo people plan to leave bequests? Do they have wills?
Publication TypeWeb Article
Year of Publication2021
AuthorsMunnell, AH
Series TitleRetirement
PublisherMarketWatch
KeywordsBequests, Inheritance, Racial Disparities, wealth disparities, Wills
Abstract

Like everyone, I have been thinking about the Black/white wealth gap. Yes, the gap is greatly reduced once Social Security wealth is included in the calculation. But Social Security comes late in life, which means that young Black families have much less to provide for themselves and their children.
Then the question arises as to how this gap evolved — how much is due to saving and asset returns, and how much to inheritances? Just as I was thinking about inheritances, a man called absolutely fixated on inheritances and wills.
So my colleague Gal Wettstein agreed to take a look at responses regarding wills and bequests in the Health and Retirement Study (HRS), a longitudinal survey of people over age 50 conducted every two years since 1992. New cohorts are added every six years, so the survey now includes 26,500 households.

URLhttps://www.marketwatch.com/story/do-people-plan-to-leave-bequests-do-they-have-wills-11629757010
Citation Key11820