Millennials will enjoy the biggest 'inheritance boom' of any post-war generation over next 20 years

Millennials will enjoy the biggest "inheritance boom" of any post-war generation. Photo / 123RF

Millennials will enjoy the biggest "inheritance boom" of any post-war generation, according to a new UK report.

The Resolution Foundation said wealth accumulated by older people would benefit younger generations in years to come.

The think-tank said inheritances would double over the next 20 years as so-called baby boomers – born between 1946 and 1965 – become older, according to the Daily Mail.

Almost two thirds of people aged 20 to 35 have parents who own property, which they might expect to get a share of in the future, the report said.

By contrast, fewer than two in five adults born in the 1930s received an inheritance.

The foundation said so-called millennials, born between 1981 and 2000, who are yet to get on the housing ladder, are less likely to have property passed on to them.

Even for millennials who can expect an inheritance, this may happen far too late to help them on to the housing ladder, and may be more use for grandchildren's home ownership.

The foundation estimated that the most common age at which millennials inherit would be 61.

Laura Gardiner, senior policy analyst at the think-tank, said: "Older generations have benefited hugely from the big increases in household wealth in Britain over recent decades.

"While the millennials have done far less well in accumulating their own assets, they are likely to benefit from an inheritance boom in the decades ahead.

"This is likely to be very welcome news for those millennials, including some from poorer backgrounds, who in the past would have been unlikely to receive bequests. They have the good fortune to benefit from the luck of the baby boomer generation.

"But inheritance is not the silver bullet that will get a whole new generation on the housing ladder."