By Dr. Tamara Patzer
In brief: An estimated $124 trillion will pass between generations in the United States through 2048, and the families that keep what they receive tend to share more than money. This feature draws on a New Orleans tax attorney’s book to explain why purpose, governance, and plain talk around the table matter as much as any legal document.
Every family has a story about how its money was made. Fewer have a story about why. New Orleans tax and estate attorney Todd M. Villarrubia, author of Entrepreneurial B.E.A.S.T. Mode™, argues that the second story is the one that decides what the next generation does with what it gets. His book begins with a definition of the top tier, but its center of gravity is the kitchen table.
How Much Wealth Is About To Change Hands?
A great deal. Cerulli Associates estimates that $124 trillion will pass between generations in the United States through 2048, with about $105 trillion going to heirs and $18 trillion to charity. The Federal Reserve’s newest figures, released October 9, 2026, put mean family net worth at $1.24 million and median at $215,900, which gives a sense of how unevenly that wealth is spread.
For a family at the top of that range, the question is not whether wealth will change hands. It is whether the family will be ready when it does.
What Do Families That Keep Wealth Do Differently?
They explain themselves. Villarrubia’s book says that families who retain wealth “treat wealth like a business, not a windfall, and view legacy as a mission, not an accident”. They also share the reasons behind the wealth with the next generation, along with the methods.
He draws a firm line between receiving money and receiving responsibility. In his words: “Money changing hands means nothing if stewardship doesn’t change with it.” An heir who inherits a portfolio but not the thinking behind it has been given a task without instructions.
Why Do Empires Fall From The Inside?
The book’s answer is one of its sharpest lines: “The empire doesn’t fall from competition but from internal confusion.” A family business can survive a recession and a rival. It has a harder time surviving two siblings who disagree about who is in charge.
That confusion usually starts quietly. A parent never explains a decision. A document names one successor and the family expected another. Advisers each hold a piece of the picture, and no one holds all of it. Villarrubia’s book warns of the result: “Without a shared purpose and values, even the best estate plan becomes fuel for division.”
Do Legal Documents Solve This?
They are necessary and not sufficient. The book puts it in a line that surprises some readers: “But estate documents don’t prevent family disputes; they merely provide something to fight over.”
The point is not that documents do not matter. It is that a document without a shared understanding leaves the family to interpret it, usually at the worst time. A will does not tell a grieving family why a decision was made. A conversation held years earlier can.
The legal framework still counts. The IRS sets the 2026 federal basic exclusion amount at $15,000,000 per person. A family business or a portfolio of property can approach that figure without anyone feeling rich, since value is not cash. State rules differ, and federal law can change.
What Does The Top 1% Have To Do With Any Of This?
More than it seems. For tax year 2023, a filer needed about $676,000 of adjusted gross income to land in the top 1%, according to the Tax Foundation. Villarrubia notes that many families in that group do not think of themselves as wealthy, and so do not set up the habits that wealthy families rely on.
His observation about the families he describes is that they plan across a much longer horizon: “The 1% plans in decades, not pay cycles.” Decades is a family concept, not a fiscal one. It asks the current generation to make decisions that will not pay off until its grandchildren are adults.
What Does A Family Conversation Actually Cover?
It starts small. What did the family build, and what did it cost? Which values should survive the next owner? Who is responsible for what, and who decides when people disagree? These are not legal questions, though the answers shape every legal document. A family that has had that talk at least once is better placed to follow a plan when pressure arrives.
The book is careful not to promise results. It describes patterns in the families that have kept wealth, and it presents them as habits a family can adopt, not as guarantees.
What Are The Practical Steps?
The book does not offer a single formula, but the habits it describes are easy to follow:
- Write down why the family holds what it holds, in plain language.
- Hold regular family meetings on the subject, and bring in the next generation early.
- Name who decides what, and what happens if that person cannot.
- Put the legal and tax work in place early, with advisers who talk to each other.
- Keep reasons and documents together, so one explains the other.
The greatest risk, in the book’s view, is not the one most people expect. As Villarrubia writes, “The greatest risk to wealth isn’t taxes or markets, but forgetting why the plan exists.”
The same advice applies to families who feel that their money is too ordinary to deserve a plan. The book’s point is that the habits matter at any size, and that waiting for a larger balance sheet usually means waiting too long.
What Is The First Habit Worth Copying?
Talk about the plan while nothing is wrong. Families that keep their wealth tend to treat planning as a recurring conversation and not a reaction to a crisis. Pick a date this year, invite the people who will be affected, and put three questions on the table: what is the money for, who decides, and what should happen if something goes wrong. Write the answers down and keep them with the family’s documents. Then schedule the next conversation before anyone leaves the room.
Common Questions
Is This Only For Very Rich Families?
No. The habits apply to any family with something worth passing on, including a business.
Do We Need A Family Office?
Not always. That depends on the size and complexity of the family’s affairs.
When Should The Family Start?
Earlier than feels necessary. Many steps cannot be taken once a crisis has begun.
Sources
- NAPA-Net, Wealth Transfers Expected to Hit $124 Trillion Through 2048 (reporting Cerulli)
- Federal Reserve Board, press release on the 2025 Survey of Consumer Finances
- Tax Foundation, Who Pays Federal Income Taxes? Tax Year 2023
- Internal Revenue Service, What’s New: Estate and Gift Tax
About the author. Dr. Tamara Patzer is a publisher and former newspaper editor. She was on the staff of The Charlotte Sun when it was named a 2005 Pulitzer Prize finalist for its Hurricane Charley coverage.
About the source. Todd M. Villarrubia is an attorney with an LL.M. in Taxation and a Juris Doctorate. He is an Accredited Estate Planner, a Board Certified Expert in Estate Planning and Administration, and a Fiduciary Investment Advisor Representative. He is the author of Entrepreneurial B.E.A.S.T. Mode™. Wealth Planning Law Group, 101 W. Robert E. Lee Blvd., Ste 404, New Orleans, LA 70124. Phone: 504-982-8207; email: todd@lawealthplan.com; website: Wealth Planning Law Group
Disclaimer: Attorney advertising. Sponsored feature written on behalf of Todd M. Villarrubia. This article is general information, not legal or tax advice, and reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship. Results vary.
