More Adult Kids Are Going ‘No Contact’ With Parents. How Will It Affect Generational Wealth?

Family dynamics and expectations change with every generation. And a perceived rise in estrangements between adult children and their parents is the latest shift that could have an impact on the housing market and intergenerational wealth transfer. According to some reporting and anecdotes from experts, more adult children are estranged from or going “no contact” with their parents. Estrangement is difficult and complicated for many reasons, but one major downstream effect is what happens to assets such as real estate and proceeds from home sales when a family’s bonds are broken. As the Great Wealth Transfer sends trillions of dollars from older generations to younger folks, disinheritance means substantial sums of money may go in different directions than expected, if the parents decide to redirect it. What estrangement means for any one family depends on its circumstances. Why estrangement may be on the riseIt’s difficult to pin down exactly how prevalent a trend like estrangement among family is. One YouGov poll from 2025 says that 16% of American adults are estranged from their parents and that the children are twice as likely to cut off contact from their parents than vice ver...