The Great Wealth Transfer
Jay Bennett, Founder and Chairman, NCF Twin Cities
June, 2026 / True Riches
The National Christian Foundation does continuing research on the greatest wealth transfer in the history of the world. At this point in time, we believe $125 trillion will transfer from generation to generation over the next 20 years. Of that vast amount, less than $20 trillion is currently targeted to go to charity.
This means more than $100 trillion by current value will go to heirs and taxes. With the radically disproportionate distribution of wealth in America, many trillions could be going into complex trust agreements for heirs for the purpose of avoiding taxes. Absent very intentional planning and precise language in those trusts, however, there is considerable risk the money will generally be restricted to specified permissible distributions to heirs without provision for charitable giving. If this risk becomes reality, vast wealth could be locked up for limited distribution for many years.
No matter how much wealth your donors and their families may own, however, now is not too soon to think through ways in which you can serve the generations who love and support your organization. It most often takes a period of years for a family to be discipled and take action through a sequence of planning which empowers heirs and blesses the Kingdom.
These high capacity families can generally be categorized into one of four strategies that currently exist within their estate plans; if they have a written, updated plan. There is opportunity to serve them in moving from the first bullet point to the last:
- Leave it all to the kids
- Leave a charitable bequest of modest nature and the rest to the kids
- Add the Biblical concept of loving one’s “Neighbor” to the plan and leave equal portions of the estate to the kids and charity. More specifically, ¼ to each of Susie and Sam and Tom and charity; hopefully including your organization. This can be a breakthrough strategy to get families to think outside the box of their own family and awaken into the joy of more radical provision for others.
- Leave an empowering inheritance to the kids and the rest to charity; substantially increasing the odds your nonprofit will be a beneficiary. When the residue of an estate after heirs is set up to go to charity the odds go way up that the family will start giving that piece sooner rather than later. “Do your giving while you are living, so you are knowing where it is going.”
The National Christian Foundation offers a free seminar focused on how non-profits can help equip their donor base to create win/win plans for their heirs and the Kingdom. To join us for an upcoming seminar, please email Shelly Van Eps at svaneps@ncfgiving.com.
To discuss this and other opportunities at no cost, please feel free to reach out to Jay Bennett (jbennett@ncfgiving.com) or Tyler Van Eps (tvaneps@ncfgiving.com).