69% of Millennials Say an Inheritance Is Critical to Their Retirement, According to the Northwestern Mutual 2025 Study
Key takeaways
- SmartAsset s free tool can match you with a financial advisor in minutes to help you answer that today.
- Northwestern Mutual s 2025 Planning & Progress Study landed on a number that reframes how a generation is approaching retirement.
- An infographic from 24/7 Wall St. highlights that 69% of millennials view inheritance as critical for retirement.
Millennials face a savings crisis with personal savings rates collapsing to 4.0% in Q1 2026 while housing and healthcare costs spike faster than wage growth, forcing them to rely on inheritance because accumulating sufficient retirement funds independently has become mathematically difficult under current economic conditions.
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Northwestern Mutual s 2025 Planning & Progress Study landed on a number that reframes how a generation is approaching retirement. 69% of Millennials say an expected inheritance is "critical" or "highly critical" to their long-term financial security or retirement, well above the 57% average across all inheritance-expecting adults. The framing matters, as a generation that came of age through two recessions, a pandemic, and a housing market that priced many of them out is now telling pollsters that someone else s estate is a critical component of their retirement plan.