How Much Will Writing Can Reduce the Racial Wealth Gap? – Center for Retirement Research

Abstract

This paper examines the continuing racial wealth gap between Black and White families in the United States, focusing on unequal inheritance rates as a contributing factor. Despite efforts to close the wealth gap since Liberation, progress has stalled, and since the 1980s, the gap has actually widened. The analysis investigates the potential for equalizing will rates between Black and White populations to reduce this wealth gap over generations. Using data from Health and Retirement Study (HRS) and using both deductive and structural analysis methods, the study estimates the impact of will writing on wealth accumulation and intergenerational wealth transfer. The findings suggest that equalizing bequest rates could have reduced the racial wealth gap by 10 percent over three generations, emphasizing will as an important, but not the only, factor in addressing racial wealth disparities. This paper concludes that interventions that increase bequests are one of the most promising ways to help reduce the racial wealth gap.