Notaries are preparing for the "great transfer" of assets from the "baby boomers"

The annual amount of inheritances is currently estimated at between 300 and 400 billion euros and could reach 600 billion with the approximately 9.000 billion euros of assets that will be transferred between 2025 and 2040, recalls a white paper from the Paris Chamber of Notaries, published on Thursday.

The phenomenon is explained by the expected disappearance of the "baby boom" children, a generation that owns a large part of the 15.000 trillion euros constituting the total wealth of the French, the value of which has increased sharply in recent decades due in particular to the rise in real estate prices.

The "inheritance shock" has already begun, "we are already in an acceleration of the transmission process, driven also by tax uncertainties," observes Sophie Thibert-Belaman, first vice-president of the Paris Chamber of Notaries.

This massive transfer of wealth - more than two and a half times the current French debt - has stirred the ambitions of left-wing and centrist political figures, supported by economists, who called for higher taxes on inheritances during the preparation of the latest state budget.

For notaries, this certainly means more work. "We must prepare for the fact that our artisanal solutions will no longer suffice" and "we may need to industrialize the process," particularly through artificial intelligence, which could allow us to spend more time on the "qualitative" aspects of decisions, warns Pierre Tarrade, president of the Paris Chamber of Notaries.

The other challenge will be to adapt to the "complexity" of successions, particularly with blended families, binational families, digital assets (cryptocurrencies) and other demographic and economic developments.

Between 1990 and 2022, the proportion of couples with children among French households fell from 37% to 24%. Currently, 10,4% of children live in blended families.

"50% of inheritances are not traditional, and this will become the norm," assures Pierre Tarrade.

According to the white paper of Parisian notaries, large-scale inheritance will "increasingly involve donations and early arrangements (life insurance, dismemberment, Dutreil agreements or equivalent), which lower the average age at which one receives significant capital."

France Stratégie estimates that nearly 60% of total household wealth currently comes from inheritance.

Illustrative image of the article via Depositphotos.com.