Advisers say inheritances received in your 50s and 60s are fueling early retirements, not big purchases

Financial advisers say the growing wave of inheritances arriving later in life, part of a broader "Great Wealth Transfer" expected to move trillions of dollars between generations, is playing out differently than inheritances received by people in their 30s and 40s, according to Kiplinger. Rather than funding home purchases, advisers say older recipients more often use the money to retire earlier than planned, fund long-term care, or shift into lower-paying but more meaningful work.

Joshua Mangoubi, founder of Considerate Capital Wealth Management, said most of his 60-year-old clients are already trying to get rid of possessions rather than buy more, so the inheritance effectively buys time instead. Long-term care costs are a common use: the median annual cost of assisted living was $74,400 and a private nursing home room ran nearly $130,000 in 2025, according to CareScout.

Brandon Cox, a certified financial planner at Coastline Complete Wealth, said more than half of his clients who inherit substantial sums choose to pass that wealth directly to their own children rather than spend it, sometimes naming their kids as beneficiaries instead of a spouse even in intact first marriages. Other advisers described clients who used inheritances to leave demanding careers, including one attorney who became a substitute teacher and a business owner who became a bartender at a local brewery.