Estate & Legacy · The Lithos Blog
Cerulli Associates projects $124 trillion will change hands in the United States through 2048 — the largest movement of wealth in history. Yet in most families, the wealth does not survive the trip. Here is the calm, structured way to make sure yours does.
What Is Actually Happening
Research firm Cerulli Associates projects that $124 trillion will change hands in the United States through 2048 — about $105 trillion flowing to heirs and $18 trillion to charity, with roughly 81% of it coming from Baby Boomers and older generations. Economists call it the Great Wealth Transfer, and it is not a future event. It is underway right now, one family at a time, in Carmel, in Fishers, in Lafayette, and across every county in Indiana.
Here is the thing, though. The headline number is not the story. The story is what happens to the money after it moves — because the historical track record of wealth surviving a generational handoff is genuinely sobering. This article walks through the numbers, the real reasons wealth disappears, and a calm, step-by-step framework any Indiana family can use to be the exception.
Whether you are the generation passing wealth on or the generation receiving it, the decisions made — or avoided — in the next few years will shape your family's finances for decades. The families that keep wealth are not luckier. They are simply prepared, and preparation is teachable.
The Numbers That Should Stop You
Why Wealth Disappears
When the Williams Group researchers traced the failures back to their roots, the pattern surprised almost everyone. It was not bad investments. It was not taxes. It was people — and how they talked, or did not talk, to each other.
The Framework
Successful wealth transfer starts with meaning, not mechanics. The Three V's give families a proven sequence for the planning conversation — and the order is the whole point.
What was the wealth for? What principles and priorities should guide how it is used?
What should the wealth do for the family over the next 50 years? What legacy do you want to leave?
Trusts, insurance, beneficiary designations — the legal and financial structures. These come last, not first.
They start with vehicles: "Do I need a trust?"
They jump straight to structures and legal documents without ever having the values or vision conversation.
Result: structures that do not reflect what the family actually wanted — and heirs who inherit paperwork instead of purpose.
Start with Values — align on what the wealth means and what it is for.
Move to Vision — define what success looks like across generations.
Only then design the Vehicles. The right structures emerge naturally from the right conversations.
Closer to Home
These patterns repeat again and again across Hamilton County and the greater Indianapolis area. Do any of them sound familiar?
Parents in their 60s and 70s who have quietly built a seven-figure net worth across a home, retirement accounts, and maybe a business or farmland — whose adult children have no idea what is in the will, or that there is a will at all.
Estate documents drafted 10 or more years ago naming the wrong people — ex-spouses, deceased relatives, or children who were minors at the time. Life changed; the paperwork never did.
Grandparents who genuinely want to do something meaningful for the next generation but do not know how or where to start — so, year after year, they start nowhere.
The Vehicles, Done Right
Once the values and vision conversations have happened, every Indiana family with meaningful assets should have these five pieces in place — current, reviewed, and coordinated with each other. Tap each one as you confirm it.
Reviewed within the last five years. Life changes — marriages, births, moves, businesses — and your will should reflect the life you actually have today.
Often valuable if you own real estate or a business. Properly funded, it can keep assets out of probate and keep your family's affairs private. Whether one fits your situation is a conversation for a licensed Indiana estate attorney.
Both financial and healthcare. These are your incapacity plan — they decide who can act for you while you are alive but unable to act for yourself.
On retirement accounts, life insurance, and payable-on-death accounts. These override your will — which makes an outdated designation one of the most common and costly oversights in estate planning.
Term coverage, possibly paired with permanent coverage, depending on your stage and goals. More on the two distinct jobs insurance does, below.
The Insurance Layer
Life insurance serves a fundamentally different purpose depending on where you are in your wealth journey — and understanding the difference is what turns a policy from an expense into a plan.
Before retirement age. If the primary earner passes away before the family's wealth has fully accumulated, term life insurance replaces the income stream and protects the household's financial foundation — the mortgage, the education plans, the retirement savings that were still being built.
At and beyond retirement age. Permanent life insurance can deliver immediate, generally income-tax-free cash to beneficiaries — money that can cover final expenses and settlement costs, equalize inheritances between heirs, and help keep farms, businesses, and family homes intact rather than forcing a sale. Guarantees are backed by the claims-paying ability of the issuing insurer, and the right design depends on your goals and budget.
The Conversation and the Clock
Let me be honest with you: the family meeting is awkward. It is also inevitable and necessary — the only question is whether it happens on your terms, while everyone is healthy and rational, or in a hospital hallway when it is too late to plan. Hold it early. Keep the agenda simple: values, vision, vehicles. In that order.
And you do not need to solve everything at once. Progress over perfection — here is a 90-day sequence that any family can complete without drama.
Gather every document and every beneficiary designation. Note what is missing, what is outdated, and who is named where. No judgment — just an honest inventory.
Sit down with an Indiana estate attorney, your CPA, and your insurance and financial professional. Bring the inventory. Let each layer of the plan be built by the person licensed to build it.
Share the values and the vision — as much detail as you are comfortable with. Then put an annual review on the calendar, because a plan you never revisit slowly becomes a plan you no longer have.
If part of your family's wealth story involves assets abroad — property, accounts, or an inheritance from India — the transfer has an extra compliance layer. We wrote a full companion guide: 2026 Tax Filing & Asset Repatriation.
The Bottom Line
The Great Wealth Transfer will be the defining financial event of this generation — $124 trillion in motion, and a 70% historical failure rate waiting for the families who never prepare. But the causes of failure are known, they are human, and they are fixable: talk to each other, prepare the next generation, agree on what the wealth is for, and only then build the vehicles. Start your 90 days this week. Your family's version of this story is still being written — and you hold the pen.
These resources support the facts and research referenced throughout this article.
The research firm's projection: $124 trillion transferring through 2048 — $105 trillion to heirs and $18 trillion to charity, with roughly 81% coming from Baby Boomers and older generations.
Read the press releaseCoverage of the 20+ year study of more than 3,200 families behind the 70% / 90% failure rates — and the finding that 60% of failures trace to communication and trust, 25% to unprepared heirs.
See the breakdownRev. Proc. 2025-32: the official 2026 figures under the One, Big, Beautiful Bill, including the federal estate basic exclusion of $15 million per person.
See the IRS releaseThe state's official page confirming Indiana's inheritance tax was repealed in 2013 — no Indiana inheritance tax is owed for deaths after December 31, 2012.
Read the DOR page
Dr. Saha works with families, business owners, and aspiring entrepreneurs on financial education, wealth strategy, real estate, and entrepreneurship — helping people build stronger foundations and make confident decisions. Meet the author →
Next step
Most families start with documents and never have the conversation. We help Indiana families do it in the right sequence — education first, structure second, and no pressure at any step.
