Most people picture an inheritance as a life-changing windfall. The data tells a very different story: for the typical American family that inherits anything at all, the sum is far smaller than the headlines suggest, while a handful of large estates pull the "average" into the millions.
This page pulls together the best available figures on how much people actually inherit, drawn from the Federal Reserve's Survey of Consumer Finances, Penn Wharton, Cerulli Associates, and California state sources, with a California lens where the state's own numbers exist. Every figure is linked to its source at the foot of the page. Updated July 2026.
The gap between the typical inheritance and the average
The single most important thing to understand about inheritance statistics is that the mean and the median are worlds apart, because a small number of enormous estates distort the average.
1. The typical inheritance is about $69,000, but the average is over $707,000
Using the Federal Reserve's 2022 Survey of Consumer Finances, households that inherited without a trust received a median of $69,000, while the mean for that same group was $707,291.1 Where a trust was involved, the median jumped to $285,000 and the mean to more than $4 million, which shows how heavily the top of the distribution skews the average.2 When you read that "the average inheritance is hundreds of thousands of dollars," this is why: the median is the number that describes a normal family.
2. About half of all inheritances are under $50,000
An analysis of decades of survey data found that roughly half of all inheritances are for amounts less than $50,000, and those smaller bequests together make up only a little over 5 percent of the total dollars transferred.3 In other words, most inheritances are modest, and most of the money flows through a small number of very large ones.
3. The bottom half of households averages under $10,000, the top 1% averages millions
Sorted by wealth, the least wealthy half of American families that inherit average around $9,700, while the wealthiest 1 percent average roughly $2.7 million.4 Sorted by income, recipients in the top 5 percent take home an average of about $424,000, several times what everyone below them receives.5
How many households ever inherit
Inheritance is rarer than most people assume. It is not a universal life stage, and the share of families that receive one has drifted down over time.
4. Only about 7% of households inherit in any five-year window
Penn Wharton estimates that a household has roughly a 7.4 percent probability of receiving an inheritance in a given five-year period. The likelihood peaks between ages 56 and 65, where it reaches about 11.2 percent.6
5. Roughly one in five households has ever received a wealth transfer
Across the Federal Reserve's long survey record, the fraction of households reporting that they had ever received an inheritance or substantial gift was about 23.1 percent in 1989 and has hovered around one in five since.7 A clear majority of American families never inherit anything at all.
6. White families are about three times more likely to inherit than Black or Hispanic families
Federal Reserve data show that close to 30 percent of White families report having received an inheritance or gift, compared with about 10 percent of Black families, 7 percent of Hispanic families, and 18 percent of families of other backgrounds.8
Inheritance by age, income, and race
7. Most inheritances arrive between ages 46 and 75
The bulk of inheritances are received in middle age and early retirement, between roughly 46 and 75, and most of them come from parents rather than more distant relatives.9 The idea of inheriting young, in your twenties or thirties, is the exception rather than the rule.
8. White households inherit more than five times as much as Black households
The size of inheritances is even more unequal than the odds of receiving one. White households inherit over 5.3 times as much as Black households and about 6.4 times as much as Hispanic households.10
What the estates themselves are worth
9. The estates people leave hold roughly $240,000 to $315,000 in net wealth
Looking at what people actually own when they die, median net wealth ranges from about $296,000 for those who die in their 60s, to $313,000 in their 70s, to $315,000 in their 80s, then falling to about $238,000 for those who die in their 90s as savings are drawn down late in life.11
| Age at death | Median net wealth of estate |
|---|---|
| 60s | $296,000 |
| 70s | $313,000 |
| 80s | $315,000 |
| 90s | $238,000 |
10. A parent's education predicts the size of the inheritance
Federal Reserve figures show that households whose parents did not hold a college degree inherited a median of $76,200, while those whose parents held a college degree inherited a median of $92,700.12 Inherited advantage tends to compound across generations.
The "great wealth transfer" ahead
11. About $84 trillion is expected to change hands through 2045
Cerulli Associates projects that roughly $84.4 trillion in wealth will be transferred through 2045, with about $72.6 trillion going to heirs and $11.9 trillion to charity.13 It is the largest intergenerational handoff of assets in history.
12. Nearly two-thirds of it comes from Baby Boomers, and a large slice from a tiny elite
More than $53 trillion, about 63 percent of the total, will come from Baby Boomer households, and roughly $35.8 trillion (42 percent) is expected to come from high-net-worth and ultra-high-net-worth households that make up just 1.5 percent of all families.14
13. Earlier academic estimates put the long-run transfer at $59 trillion
Before Cerulli's projection, the Boston College Center on Wealth and Philanthropy estimated that some $59 trillion would pass from estates between 2007 and 2061, with about $36 trillion going directly to heirs and the rest to taxes and charity.15
California context: no death tax, but pricey homes
For a Californian, two facts change what an inheritance actually looks like: the state takes nothing when you die, but the assets being passed down are unusually real-estate-heavy.
14. California charges no estate tax and no inheritance tax
The California Franchise Tax Board confirms that gifts and inheritances are not counted as income and are not taxed at the state level.16 Voters made this permanent in 1982 by passing Proposition 6, which repealed the state's inheritance and gift taxes and bars any California government from taxing a transfer at death.17 Unlike states such as Pennsylvania, which levies an inheritance tax of 4.5 to 15 percent, a California heir owes the state nothing.
15. Only the very largest estates owe any federal tax
A California estate can still owe federal estate tax, but only above the federal exemption, which stands at roughly $15 million per person in 2026.18 The overwhelming majority of estates fall far below that line, so most heirs pay no death tax of any kind.
16. The typical California inheritance is dominated by a home worth around $775,000
Because so much California wealth sits in real estate, the shape of a local inheritance follows home prices. Zillow puts the typical California home value at about $775,550, one of the highest of any state.19 Across California's roughly 39.4 million residents, the Census Bureau reports a median owner-occupied home value near $725,800.20 For many California families the inheritance is not cash at all, it is a house, which is precisely why deciding in advance who receives it matters so much.
If you want to control where your own home and savings go rather than leaving it to the state's default rules, you can put a valid will together in one sitting with our guided will builder. For more local context, see how many people are actually prepared in our companion piece on how many Californians have a will.
Sources
- 1Boldin: Average Inheritance From Parents (SCF 2022 analysis) (boldin.com)
- 2Federal Reserve, Changes in U.S. Family Finances from 2019 to 2022 (Survey of Consumer Finances) (federalreserve.gov)
- 3U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: Inheritances and the Distribution of Wealth (bls.gov)
- 4Boldin: Average Inheritance by wealth tier (boldin.com)
- 5Penn Wharton Budget Model: Inheritances by Age and Income Group (budgetmodel.wharton.upenn.edu)
- 6Penn Wharton Budget Model: probability of receiving an inheritance (budgetmodel.wharton.upenn.edu)
- 7Federal Reserve FEDS Notes: How Does Intergenerational Wealth Transmission Affect Wealth Concentration? (federalreserve.gov)
- 8Federal Reserve FEDS Notes: Disparities in Wealth by Race and Ethnicity in the 2019 SCF (federalreserve.gov)
- 9Penn Wharton Budget Model: age distribution of inheritances (budgetmodel.wharton.upenn.edu)
- 10Penn Wharton Budget Model: Inheritances by Race (budgetmodel.wharton.upenn.edu)
- 11Boldin: net wealth of estates by age at death (United Income data) (boldin.com)
- 12Federal Reserve Survey of Consumer Finances: inheritance by parental education (federalreserve.gov)
- 13Cerulli Associates: Anticipates $84 Trillion in Wealth Transfers Through 2045 (cerulli.com)
- 14Cerulli Associates: composition of the wealth transfer (cerulli.com)
- 15CNBC / Boston College Center on Wealth and Philanthropy: $59 trillion wealth transfer projection (cnbc.com)
- 16California Franchise Tax Board: Gifts and inheritance (ftb.ca.gov)
- 17California State Controller's Office: California Estate Tax (sco.ca.gov)
- 18California Franchise Tax Board: federal estate tax note (ftb.ca.gov)
- 19Zillow: California Home Values (zillow.com)
- 20U.S. Census Bureau QuickFacts: California (population and median home value) (census.gov)
About the author
Max Kuch
Max Kuch writes about estate planning, wills and inheritance for California Will Template. He gathers the numbers from official California and US public data, then explains what they mean for anyone thinking about putting their wishes in writing.