Leaving an inheritance or a legacy for the next generation is definitely a personal choice and there is no right or wrong answer to it.

Giving an inheritance can mean sacrificing your today for someone else’s tomorrow. If you talk to the elderly, you will hear that the focus was always on making the next generation more financially secure and being given the chances they never had.

However, we tend to forget that in those days, the first born received the assets and if you were second or third in line or worse if you were a female, you would not get anything.

We have read countless articles about baby boomers and the financial challenges they are facing, and also how a large majority of boomers plan to spend everything before they die and pass along little to the next generation.

In 2006, an inheritance study by AARP revealed that four out of five boomer households had received or will be receiving an inheritance; however, only 15% intend to give one. Another survey by Sun Super in 2009 interviewed 1,000 people per generation and each person was asked one simple question:

Do you plan to leave a legacy? (more…)