The Dutch Authority for the Financial Markets (AFM) has published a report assessing how inheritances and gifts worth hundreds of billions of EUR could reshape consumers’ financial choices over the coming decades. These transfers could create opportunities to build wealth, but also widen inequality within generations and expose recipients to investment fraud.
Much of the wealth held by older generations is tied to housing equity. Heirs often use proceeds from inherited homes to buy a larger property, renovate or make sustainability improvements. Inheritances can therefore improve access to housing and strengthen recipients’ position in the property market, while widening differences between households that inherit housing wealth and those that do not.
As wealth passes to generations with different needs and financial preferences, financial providers should offer products and services that suit those needs and support informed decisions. Recipients facing complex financial choices while emotionally vulnerable may be particularly susceptible to investment fraud involving promises of high returns. Consumer information, appropriate services and vigilance for signs of fraud are important safeguards.