Heirs Beware: 42% Spend Inheritance Within a Year, Study Finds
April 7, 2026 by Dinah Wisenberg Brin
A significant portion of heirs burn through their entire inheritance within a year, and it’s different than the outcomes for other windfalls, new research shows.
The study, from researchers at Texas Tech University and the University of Alabama, found that 42% of heirs “had their net worth fall back to, or below, their pre-inheritance level when measured about 12 months later. In plain English, they had immediately blown it all,” one of the authors said in a recent LinkedIn post.
Originally Posted at Think Advisor on Apr 7, 2026 by Dinah Wisenberg Brin.
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