Affordability, Elder Financial Abuse, and Estate Planning

Takeaways

• The current affordability crisis is pressuring younger generations to seek early access to older adults’ wealth.
• This economic pressure is increasing financial elder abuse within families, threatening seniors’ financial security.

Americans don’t agree on much these days, but if we can come to a consensus on anything in the current year, it’s that things are getting more expensive — and more of us are feeling the pinch.

With millions of Americans struggling to pay for everyday essentials, we are mired in what many experts — and lately, many politicians — are calling a crisis of affordability.

While the official numbers say the economy is doing OK, most Americans disagree. This disconnect is shaping up to be a major political issue heading into 2026. And it’s already reshaping how family members live, spend, and support one another.

In many households, families are pulling together in ways they haven’t in decades. Parents are helping their adult children with rent, food, and child care. Adult children are serving as caregivers for aging parents.

But the same economic pressures that bring families closer can also push them apart. The “affordability crisis” is fueling a surge in financial elder abuse, including “inheritance impatience” and “inheritance preservation” schemes. Pushed to their financial limits, adult children are asking parents to hand over their wealth early — or to stop spending it.

For some older adults, financial help that begins with good intentions ends with unexpected pressure, blurred boundaries, or even harmful influence — and worse — from loved ones who are struggling.

If you’re thinking about helping family right now, it may also be the right time to revisit and strengthen your estate plan.

The Affordability Crisis Meets the Great Wealth Transfer

If there’s one buzzword that has come to dominate American culture, and American politics, in late 2025, it’s affordability.

Despite positive indicators like cooling inflation and low unemployment, which are traditionally signs of economic strength, Americans are feeling increasingly pessimistic about the economy.

Public Opinion Flashes Warning Signs on Economy

Inflation and the economy ranked as Americans’ top national concerns in an October 2025 CBS News poll. Nearly half of Americans today say it’s harder to afford groceries now than a year ago, and almost three-quarters say housing has grown less affordable in recent years. Many also struggle to pay for housing, child care, health care, and utilities.

Vows to fix the high cost of living recently propelled a relative unknown, Zohran Mamdani, into the highest office in America’s largest city, as he campaigned on a platform to lower costs across the board for New Yorkers.

Some have questioned whether his plan is feasible, but there’s no doubt about the popularity of his messaging. President Trump, who won an “affordability election” in 2024, has even co-opted the messaging of his rival Democrats in response to his poll numbers sagging on economic issues.

New York, one of the most expensive cities in the world, isn’t the only place facing an affordability crisis. Rapidly rising prices have pushed tens of millions of people worldwide into poverty.

In the U.S. and other developed countries, affordability is less likely to result in life-threatening poverty. However, a quarter of people in the developed world are struggling financially. About 6 million to 9 million U.S. adults age 65 and older are living in poverty. The older adult poverty rate is also rising.

When half the world’s population owns only 1 percent of its total wealth, affordability cannot be separated from inequality.

Mamdani plans to bring down the cost of living by raising taxes on the wealthiest 1 percent of New Yorkers. Amid rising inequality and unaffordability, taxing the wealthy, a policy that has long been supported by liberal Democrats, could gain steam in the 2026 elections, where affordability is shaping up to be a top voter issue.

Whose Wealth Is It, Anyway?

A different and decentralized form of wealth redistribution is also poised to alter economic outcomes: the great wealth transfer. Over the next couple of decades, an estimated $100 trillion is set to change hands from older to younger generations, mainly from baby boomers to Gen X, millennials, and Gen Z.

During the past few decades, the wealth gap between generations in America has grown wider than ever. Boomers have now become the “wealthiest generation that ever lived.” They hold an estimated $80 trillion in wealth — more than double that of Gen X and four times what millennials have.

The wealth gap between generations has contributed to the idea, popular among many younger Americans, that their elders are sitting on homes and piles of cash that should go toward helping them get established.

A Bloomberg article describes how many young people are growing impatient about waiting for their inheritance. Some, in fact, are resorting to extremes to get the money they view as the fix to their financial woes.

An age discrimination expert told Bloomberg that “inheritance impatience” (when adult children pressure parents to hand over savings early) and “inheritance preservation” (when children prevent parents from spending on aged care or medical treatment) fit a pattern of growing elder financial abuse in developed nations such as the U.S.

In the U.S., victims of elder financial exploitation lose $28.3 billion annually. However, the issue is probably not widely reported because family members are often involved, keeping many cases out of court.

But it’s an issue that threatens to only get worse as the affordability crisis meets the great wealth transfer — and some younger Americans take it upon themselves to accelerate that transfer, sometimes by any means necessary.

“I Want My Inheritance Now”

Bloomberg cites a financial advisor who says, “Young people are not wanting to wait until their parents die” to receive their inheritances.

In some cases, they are quite direct about it, saying, “I want my inheritance now.”

According to Bloomberg, cases of elder financial abuse, such as grandparents coerced into signing over property deeds under threats of losing contact with grandchildren, are becoming more common.

It describes a case where a retired nurse gave her pension savings to a family member to build a small guest apartment on their property, where she wouldn’t be subject to an unaffordable rental market. When the agreement collapsed, her relative kicked her to the curb and left her with nothing.

The subtext of this anecdote is revealing: The same economic pressures that affect adult children and grandchildren — housing stress, inflation, rising health costs — also affect seniors. In fact, rising costs and limited savings can make them more financially vulnerable than younger people.

Younger and middle-aged adults are facing an economic situation far different from what their parents experienced. Housing costs are at historic highs. Many working people cannot afford basics like groceries and gas. They’re delaying major purchases, taking on additional debt, and contributing less to retirement funds.

As costs have exploded, wages have also failed to keep pace with inflation and hiring has slowed.

In this economic backdrop, a growing share of young people feel the American Dream is out of reach.

Younger generations are facing a landscape where financial independence is far more difficult. Many of them see inheritance as one of the few remaining “lifelines.”

Most consider it part of their financial planning, according to Northwestern Mutual’s 2025 Planning & Progress Study. It found that 63 percent of Gen Z and 69 percent of millennials say an inheritance is critical or highly critical to their long-term financial security.

But the financial picture for many older Americans is not nearly as rosy as some young people depict it. They’re managing their own version of the affordability crisis amid longer retirements, higher health care and long-term care costs, and less affordable basic living expenses.

A 65-year-old retiring in 2025 will spend nearly $175,000 out of pocket on medical costs alone. Nearly half of all seniors lack the income to cover essentials. Long-term care, something that nearly 80 percent of older adults will require, is the biggest wildcard. And despite the narrative of them hoarding wealth, many baby boomers have little or no retirement savings and are dependent on Social Security.

These realities mean that while older adults often feel compelled to help, giving away too much too soon can quickly undermine their own financial stability and future care needs.

When Financial Pressure Crosses the Line: From Undue Influence to Something Worse

Sadly, the vast majority of financial exploitation of older adults takes place within families, most often in a home where the victim is living.

Senior financial abuse ranges from subtle forms of manipulation like undue influence, where a senior is pressured to change their financial decisions, to overt acts such as theft, which includes stealing money or property.

Undue influence occurs when someone uses trust, closeness, or emotional pressure to sway an older adult into financial decisions they would not otherwise make. It can look like:

• Repeated requests for financial help
• Guilt-driven appeals
• Discouraging a parent from spending their own savings
• Pressuring for “early inheritance”
• Asking for joint access to accounts “just to help”

Someone may not recognize these subtle behaviors as harmful. But when financial stress rises, undue influence can escalate into something more serious. If pressure becomes expectation, or if a parent begins to feel unsafe saying no, the situation may cross into:

• Financial exploitation — Manipulation for financial gain
• Coercion or duress — Pressure so strong the parent has no real choice
• Power of attorney abuse — Unauthorized transfers or withdrawals
• Fraud or misrepresentation — Hiding information to obtain money
• Unauthorized transactions or theft — Direct misuse of accounts or property

Bloomberg’s characterization of family-based elder financial abuse as “inheritance impatience” and “inheritance preservation” can sound like euphemisms, belying the fact that financial exploitation is a crime that can be prosecuted civilly and criminally. It also has implications for estate planning.

How Smart Estate Planning Protects You

Most families are doing their best to navigate the affordability crisis. They are helping each other out by sharing time, resources, and a sense of shared purpose. But financial pressure within families, and the abuses this pressure can lead to, should not be ignored.

The choice between helping loved ones and protecting your financial future doesn’t need to be zero-sum. Estate planning can help you set guardrails around gifting, address risks, and preserve wealth. For example:

Pressure to Gift Early

Solution: Document lifetime gifts or set gifting limits in your estate plan. Use trusts for controlled or conditional support.

Emotional Manipulation or Guilt

Solution: Update your power of attorney to limit gifting authority, require two agents, or add oversight for major transactions.

Requests for Access to Accounts

Solution: Avoid joint accounts; instead, use a financial power of attorney or read-only account access.

Power of Attorney Misuse

Solution: Revisit your durable power of attorney. Choose the right agent(s), add monitoring requirements, and prohibit self-dealing.

Pressure to Add a Child to Your Home or Deed

Solution: Place your home in a revocable trust to maintain control and protect against risky transfers.

Unauthorized Withdrawals or Transactions

Solution: Move assets into a trust, enable transaction alerts, and update your agents and trustees.

Why Now Is the Right Time to Update Your Plan

With families under unprecedented financial pressure, an outdated estate plan becomes one of the biggest risks to an older adult’s savings, home, and autonomy.

Between the cost-of-living crisis, rising housing costs, stagnant wages, and adult children struggling under real financial strain, many seniors are facing new questions:

• Should I give my child part of their inheritance early?
• Should I co-sign a mortgage?
• Can I afford to help without hurting myself?
• Will this gift mess up my long-term care planning?

The affordability crisis isn’t going away soon. Families will continue supporting each other in creative and compassionate ways. But financial stress can strain even the closest relationships in ways no one expects.

Revising your estate plan now, during the crisis, allows you to help your family and protect your own future care. It gives you the freedom to say “Yes” — without the fear of compromising your finances and legacy.