# Visa Estimates $36 Trillion in Boomer Wealth Will Reach Younger Heirs

By John Kim

Canonical URL: https://www.tokenpost.com/news/business/43130
Published: 2026-10-29T02:12:50.000Z
Updated: 2026-10-29T02:12:50.000Z
Section: Business

> A wider $123.7 trillion forecast includes philanthropy and spouse-to-spouse transfers. Visa's estimate has no stated dollar-year basis.

Visa Business and Economic Insights estimates that $36 trillion in baby boomer assets will reach Gen X and millennial households over 20 years, a defined flow that differs from broader U.S. wealth-transfer forecasts.

The July 2026 model starts with $93 trillion in baby boomer assets. It subtracts liabilities, excludes the top 1% of households and factors in retirement spending, charitable bequests, taxes and fees. The model estimates that $28 trillion will be saved or invested and $8 trillion spent.

A separate 2025 projection puts U.S. household transfers from 2024 through 2048 at $123.7 trillion in 2023 dollars. It includes $105.3 trillion for heirs and $18.4 trillion for philanthropic causes. The total also counts wealth that passes between spouses before reaching later beneficiaries, so it does not represent $123.7 trillion going directly to younger heirs.

The projection includes $54 trillion expected to pass first to widowed spouses, with more than 95% of that amount going to women. Nearly $40 trillion is expected to reach widowed women in Baby Boomer and older generations. The broader U.S. household transfer forecast therefore covers movement between household members as well as inheritances for later beneficiaries.

For generational inheritances, the projection puts Gen X at about $13.9 trillion and millennials at about $8.2 trillion from 2024 through 2033. Across the full period, it projects about $39 trillion for Gen X and $45.6 trillion for millennials. The larger full-period totals do not mean the generations are projected to receive wealth on the same schedule.

The estimates are not like-for-like: Visa tracks a post-deduction flow from baby boomers to two younger generations, while the broader projection includes transfers across U.S. households and philanthropic giving over a different period. The broader projection uses 2023 dollars, while Visa does not identify a base year for its estimate.

Crypto ownership is present among some younger wealthy U.S. investors, but neither projection estimates how much inherited wealth will go to digital assets. A June 2026 survey of 1,431 U.S. respondents with at least $3 million in investable assets found that 58% of Gen Z and millennial respondents ages 21 to 45 owned crypto. The finding measures current ownership among a wealthy survey group, not future choices by heirs.