How likely are you to get an inheritance?

We hate to be the bearers of bad news, but you’re probably not going to get an inheritance.

Hopefully, this information doesn’t surprise you as much as it did our kids — and by “kids” we mean the dog.

A little over 1 in 5 U.S. households had received an inheritance at some point in their lives as of 2022, according to the Federal Reserve’s remarkable Survey of Consumer Finances. The inheritance rate jumps to 2 out of 5 if you look only at folks in their 70s, who have had more time for their parents and favorite aunts to meet a regrettable but timely demise. But even those folks are in the lucky minority.

Every three years the Fed, with the help of NORC at the University of Chicago, asks at least 4,500 Americans an astonishingly exhaustive, almost two-hour battery of questions on income and assets, from savings bonds to gambling winnings to mineral rights. One of our all-time favorite sources, the survey provides our best measure of America’s ghastly wealth disparities.

It also includes a deep dive on inheritance, the passing down of the family jewels (or whatnot) from parents (73% in 2022), grandparents (14%) and aunts and uncles (8%).

Since 1992, the number of people getting inheritances from parents has nearly doubled even as bequests from grandparents and aunts and uncles have remained flat. Your 50s will be your peak inheriting ages, which makes sense given that an average 65-year-old in the U.S. can expect to live to around age 83 and your parents are, sadly, mortal.

These windfalls include homes and other real estate. They also include related gifts and trusts, but those go to a much smaller share of Americans. They don’t include assets left to you by your spouse unless you were divorced at the time of the gift.

The average American has inherited about $58,000 as of 2022. But that’s if you include the majority of us whose total lifetime inheritance sits at $0. If you look only at the lucky few who inherited anything, their average is $266,000. And if you look only at those in their 70s, it climbs to $344,000. Of course, that’s the value at the time of the gift. Add in