Resource Category: Inheritances and Gifts
Specific estimates of what share of different racial groups receives these large financial contributions vary somewhat, but in general they tend to show two things: 1) due to the lack of economic security enjoyed by many American families, majorities of all races receive no inheritances or large inter vivos transfers at all; and 2) among those who do receive them, there are large racial disparities, with white Americans more than twice as likely as most other racial groups to receive an inheritance or transfer.
Why Inheritances & Gifts Matter
Financial transfers from family members or friends are one way that state-sponsored racial discrimination in asset building gets passed forward to the present day.
Various racially discriminatory housing policies during the Jim Crow period, for instance, supported white homeownership while proactively excluding Black families. Young adults today are more likely to purchase their first home if their parents benefited from these wealth-building programs in the past, helping contribute to the racial disparities in homeownership that we see today.
Often, this type of intergenerational support comes in the form of inheritances when someone passes away, but it also can come as an “inter vivos transfer,” or a gift made from someone while still alive — like help making a downpayment on a home purchase or help paying for college tuition.
Specific estimates of what share of different racial groups receives these large financial contributions vary somewhat, but in general they tend to show two things: 1) due to the lack of economic security enjoyed by many American families, majorities of all races receive no inheritances or large inter vivos transfers at all; and 2) among those who do receive them, there are large racial disparities, with white Americans more than twice as likely as most other racial groups to receive an inheritance or transfer.