September 15, 2025
Ultra-wealthy Americans – those with a net worth of at least $25 million – are increasingly seeing new faces among their ranks. But they’re often not the usual suspects – members of the Baby Boomer Generation or older. Instead, there is a surprising number of the ultra-wealthy among Millennials – those 72 million Americans born between 1981 and 2006.
Here's a look at this large and increasingly important group. If you have family members who are Millennials, you may find it useful to better understand your loved ones. We recently read this article with research from CEG Insights, and we are republishing it with their permission. We hope you find this as interesting as we did.
In this blog, we will discuss the following.
- Millennials Make Up Much of the Ultra-Wealthy population
- Millennials and Values
- Millennials' Financial Concerns
- Millennials' Family Concerns
- Key Differences: Millennials versus Boomers
- Key Differences: Millennials versus Gen Xers
- Millennials' View of Financial Help
- Millennials Giving Back
- Conclusion
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Millennials Make Up Much of the Ultra-Wealthy Population
It’s generally assumed that the wealthiest people are the oldest people – which, given how assets can potentially grow over time, makes sense. But when CEG Insights surveyed 165 of the ultra-wealthy, one surprising finding was a sizeable percentage – 43% - were Millennials. That compares with 23% who are Gen Xers and 29% who are Baby Boomers.
N = 165 Investors
Source: CEG Insights, 2023
Millennials' Values
When asked to define what their “best life” would look like, ultra-wealthy Millennials share some ideas with other generations, yet their vision differs in important ways. Here are some examples.
- Millennials really value wealth. More than any other generational group, Millennials believe that happiness stems in large part from the amount of wealth they accumulate (89.5% versus 78.6% overall).
- Millennials don't value spending over all else. An enormous percentage of ultra-wealthy Millennials (87.6%) say that saving and investing gives them greater satisfaction than spending.
- Millennials have strong views on what "living their best life" means. The majority of Millennials say that living their best life means one that aligns with their values. The other most common responses (cited by at least 40% of Millennials) were “maintaining good health”, and “pursuing passions”, and “having fulfilling relationships with family and friends."
Millennials were much more likely than Gen Xers and Boomers to say that a healthy work-life balance is important to living one’s best life. And yet, they’re also much more likely to list “professional achievements” as a key part of a greater existence.
Millennials and Wealth
Financially, Millennials’ concerns echo those of most other generational groups in several ways. For example, issues involving inflation, tax increases and stock market performance were all big concerns for Millennials as well as both younger and older investors.
That said, Millennials were significantly more likely than the ultra-affluent overall to cite two key concerns: interest rates (93.5% versus 84.0% overall) and maintaining their current financial position (90.4% versus 77.8%). Chances are, younger people are highly focused on the cost of credit card debt and mortgage payments—and, given the value they place on wealth accumulation, they’re acutely worried about not reversing course with their financial status.
It’s important to emphasize that Millennials don’t appear to be seeking to build significant wealth for only themselves and their own desires.
Consider that the vast majority of Millennials share a number of family-oriented financial concerns—such as having enough money to leave to posterity, paying for heirs’ education needs and leaving a legacy for their heirs (see above). Indeed, just 3.1% say they don’t want to leave a legacy.
Even their pets are top of mind in many cases, with nearly 80% of Millennials concerned about making sure their pets will be taken care of after they’re gone—far more than seen among any other group.
Millennials define what it means to leave a legacy to their heirs in a few keyways.
- Passing down significant financial assets (59.8%)
- Passing down their way of life (53.6)
- Passing down morals and values (44.3%)
Key Differences: Millennials versus Boomers
Many of Millennials’ key life values were noted above—such as maintaining good health and living a life that’s aligned with their values. However, there are some striking differences between Millennials and members of the Baby Boomer generation in terms of values. When asked about specific components that make up someone’s “best life,” some sizable gaps were revealed.
Millennials versus Boomers
Key Differences: Millennials versus Gen Xers
A few key differences between Millennials and Gen Xers also stood out. For example, Gen Xers were even more likely to say that living your best life means “a life that aligns with your own values” (74.4% versus 58.8% of Millennials). But Gen Xers appear to care much less about professional success: Just 7.7% of Gen Xers say that’s part of the definition of living your best life—versus 22.7% of Millennials.
Recognizing these types of differences may be helpful when it comes to family members of different generations doing a better job of understanding each other’s feelings and priorities. Likewise, multigenerational work environments could be improved by having the various cohorts “get” each other on a deeper level.
Millennials' View of Financial Help
The media has often painted Millennials as a generation that wants to be continually subsidized by their parents. And yet, the research reveals that Millennials’ ideas about financial support are largely mainstream.
For example, when asked about areas where children should get financial help, Millennials’ answers largely tracked the responses given by the survey participants overall.
- 59.4% of Millennials say children should get financial help to pay for college, versus 68.2% of the ultra-wealthy overall
- 40.6% of Millennials support getting help to buy a first home-versus 38.6% of the ultra-wealthy overall
What’s more, Millennials were far more likely than other demographic groups to say that18 is the age when children should be considered adults and should no longer rely on their parents—68.8% (versus 46.9% of the ultra-wealthy overall, and just 10% of the Baby Boomers).
Millennials and Giving Back
We also see that ultra-wealthy Millennials are often actively engaged in charitable giving, with $10,001 to $25,000 being the most common amount of money this group donates to charities in a typical year (21.6%). What’s more, a full 15.5% of ultra-wealthy Millennials give more than $250,000 in a typical year.
The bulk of those contributions are going to three main areas: religious organizations (18.4%), colleges/schools (15.2%) and environmental causes (12.4%).
Millennials preferred charitable-giving vehicle is the donor-advised fund: 81.4% have established and funded a DAF. That said, Millennials use multiple approaches to giving— such as writing checks to charities (64.9%) and giving through their wills (44.3%).
Conclusion
Here are a few takeaways from this research.
- Accumulating wealth is a major driver of happiness for most Millennials
- They want to pass on a legacy to their heirs - which means values and morals as well as money
- Millennials have distinct charitable goals and intentions
The picture that emerges of today’s ultra-wealthy Millennials is a complicated, complex one. Given that they make up a sizable percentage of the ultra-wealthy overall, it’s likely that they’ll play a significant role in areas such as saving, investing, spending and charitable giving in the years to come. We hope you find this research interesting and helpful.
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ACKNOWLEDGMENT: This article was published by the VFO Inner Circle, a global financial concierge group working with affluent individuals and families and is distributed with its permission. Copyright 2025 by AES Nation, LLC.