Northwestern Mutual's 2025 Planning & Progress Study Found That 69% of Millennials Say an Inheritance Is Critical to Their Retirement

"69% of millennials say an inheritance is critical or highly critical to their long-term financial security or retirement. An entire generation is quietly counting on money from someone else's estate to make its retirement math work. The trouble is that the money may never arrive in amounts anywhere close to those assumed, and the cost of being wrong compounds over decades."

"Only 26% of millennials actually expect to receive an inheritance, and even that figure has been falling. Just 20% of U.S. adults overall expect to receive an inheritance in 2025, down from 25% in 2024, while millennials dropped from 32% to 26% year-over-year. So roughly seven in ten millennials describe an inheritance as essential, but fewer than three in ten think one is actually coming."

"The dependency did not appear in a vacuum. The personal savings rate has drifted from 6.2% in the first quarter of 2024 to 4.0% in the first quarter of 2026, even as per capita disposable personal income rose from $63,638 to $68,617 over the same period, which means households were earning more but setting aside a smaller share of it as the pressure of day‑to‑day spending absorbed the difference."

"Headline PCE inflation reached 3.5% year over year in March 2026, up from 2.36% a year earlier, and energy prices climbed 14.43% over the same stretch, while the Consumer Price Index stood at 330.3 in March 2026, a level that sits near the upper end of its recent range. Average hourly earnings reached $37.41 in April 2026, yet the raises have not kept pace with the bills, leaving families with income that feels steady and jobs that feel secure, but with a noticeably thinner cushion beneath them."

69% of millennials consider inheritance critical or highly critical to long-term financial security and retirement. Only 26% of millennials expect to receive an inheritance, and expectations have declined over time. In 2025, only 20% of U.S. adults overall expect an inheritance, down from 25% in 2024, with millennials dropping from 32% to 26% year over year. This means many people plan retirement around a transfer they do not expect to receive. The gap is reinforced by weaker household saving behavior, with the personal savings rate falling from 6.2% in early 2024 to 4.0% in early 2026 despite rising disposable income. Inflation pressures, including higher PCE inflation and energy costs, reduce the share of income set aside, leaving households with thinner buffers.

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