Posts Tagged ‘Center on Wealth and Philanthropy’

It’s Time To Talk About Your Rich Kid Guilt

Tuesday, November 24th, 2009

Young people from wealthy families in Washington, D.C. take comfort in talking to their peers about the mixed feelings and guilt they experience because of their societal privilege and wealth.

  • Resource Generation, a national membership organization, brings wealthy young people together who want to use their money for progressive change.
  • The organization’s meetings provide members with a place to discuss personal issues that accompany being young, wealthy and committed social justice.
  • Many members feel their inheritance and the accompanying privilege they enjoy perpetuates the injustices they work hard to fight against and change.

Facts & Figures

  • A Boston College study concluded that about $50 trillion will be passed from one generation to the next over the first five decades of this century.
  • The number of children of millionaires decreased from 26 million in 2007 to 19 million 2009, according to the Center on Wealth and Philanthropy at Boston College.
  • There are a little more than 250,000 millionaire households in which the head of household is 35 or younger.

Best Quote

“I definitely feel like I am at war between my desires instilled in me to eat out at nice restaurants and my better sense and principles. If I make different choices when I am older, I hope to God they’re coming out of principles. Everyone changes. My great-grandmother was a communist in her 20s and a total conservative in her 90s. I won’t rule out anything.” – Janelle Treibitz, 28, Part-Time Waitress

Recession Or Not, The Wealthy Are Passing

Thursday, October 22nd, 2009

There are some ways that money moves around in an economy that have very little to do with the stock market or unemployment statistics.

  • Even though the recession has ruined many a good portfolio, Boston College’s Center on Wealth and Philanthropy is predicting a “golden age of philanthropy” between 1998 and 2052.
  • Wealthy individuals often distribute their assets at death among heirs, tax payments, charities, and legal fees, and these distributions are largely unaffected by the current economic climate. As a result, analysts project that this is the largest wave of charitable giving ever in the United States.
  • Some people, though, are donating large chunks of their net worth while they are still alive, thereby eliminating the portion that would typically go to the government after death, and confounding the researchers at Boston’s CWR.

Facts & Figures

  • CWR researchers projected an overall wealth transfer of $41 trillion between 1998 and 2052, mostly as resulting from asset exchanges at death.
  • The $41 trillion estimate still applies during the recession because researchers used a very conservative 2% annual increase in wealth in their calculations.
  • Federal data show approximately $12 trillion being transferred to heirs between 1998 and 2017.

Best Quote

“The downturn is not going to keep people from dying, and it is not going to keep a wealth transfer from occurring.” – Paul Schervish, Director of The Center on Wealth and Philanthropy at Boston College