Many young people are doing everything “right”: earning degrees, building careers, and working hard. Yet many still cannot buy a home or feel financially secure. Families are stepping in earlier with financial support, reshaping what independence and opportunity mean today.
An estimated $1 trillion in wealth is expected to transfer in Canada over the next decade, with women at the centre of this shift. At the 2025 Minerva Summit, we explored how the inheritance economy is redefining generational wealth and the pivotal role women play in shaping it.
Note: This speech was delivered to the Women of Burgundy community on September 18, 2025, and has been edited for clarity.
For more than a decade, we have been building a community to inspire women to make investing a priority and to take a leadership role over our wealth. It is because of your constant commitment to this shared purpose that we are here today. Truly—thank you.
More recently, in the past three years, our Minerva Summits have carried this mission further by pursuing the broad aspiration of generational wealth. This has been our strategic imperative—stretching our horizon beyond the present moment, and beyond a single lifetime—toward sustaining families across time and across generations.
Inevitably, this choice has brought us into dialogue with some of the defining challenges of our time. Because to build generational wealth is to reckon with the realities that will shape it. Last year, we explored the healthspan–lifespan gap. This year, we turn to the inheritance economy. Each, on its own, is profound. Together, they are not just challenges but shaping the landscape of the future. And it is within this landscape that the aspiration of generational wealth will either falter—or endure.
The Conundrum of the Inheritance Economy
At Burgundy, our work has always been about time. Not the short-term intervals of quarterly reports, but the long arc across which value compounds and endures. In investing, we call this capital preservation and growth. In life, our parallel is the well-being, opportunities, and values of families. And in families, progress is measured through the rhythm of generations—from parents to children, and grandparents to grandchildren.
Each of us in this room knows a young woman who has done everything “right.” She studied, worked hard, saved prudently. She has a stable career. She is the kind of young woman any parent would be proud of. Yet when she looks at the housing market in her city, she realizes she cannot buy even a modest home without her family’s help.
Her parents feel unsettled. For them, the rhythm of generations once carried a promise: the promise of a better life for those who follow. Now, that promise feels broken. They could write a cheque today—but something holds them back. Does giving too much too soon rob her of independence, or create tension with her siblings? If they hold back, are they being unfair, forcing her to struggle in a world so different from their own?
For the daughter, the questions are no less complicated. If her parents step in, she is grateful. And yet, accepting their support carries its own weight: the shame of having a safety net when some of her friends do not. She looks at others who seem to have made it on their own and wonders why her own efforts cannot yield the same results. Beneath the surface, she hears the script she grew up with: “If you work hard, you can build your own life.” But the numbers don’t add up.
This is the conundrum of the inheritance economy. Parents want to give without harming. Children want to achieve without strings. And today, avoiding this dilemma is impossible—because stepping onto the housing ladder depends less on effort, and more on whether parents, or grandparents, decide to bridge the gap.
Around the world, the role of inherited wealth is rising. In advanced economies, countries such as Canada, the United States, Western Europe, and Japan, roughly US$6 trillion is expected to be transferred this year alone, equal to about 10% of their combined GDP. And here in Canada, more than C$1 trillion is expected to transfer in the coming decade. To put that in perspective, that is nearly half of Canada’s economy. The scale is unprecedented.
Inheritance is not the only challenge wealthy families face. As we saw last year, the healthspan–lifespan gap is equally pressing. We may live longer lives, but not necessarily healthier lives. Many of us will spend a decade or more in the “gap,” living with chronic illness or disability. Here too, resources across generations must be mobilized to sustain well-being.
Beyond Money: Redefining Wealth
This is how inheritance and healthspan are bound together: families must stretch resources in every direction. Wealth does not flow only forward, from parent to child. It flows backward, as adult children care for aging parents. It flows sideways, as siblings wrestle with fairness and responsibility. And it flows outward, to grandchildren, nieces, nephews, and community.
At every turn, these flows carry more than money. They carry meaning. They carry expectations. They carry choices about what matters most. And this is where the possibility, and the opportunity, lies. The very tension that unsettles us also invites us to reimagine the idea of wealth. Wealth is about so much more than money. It is a tool to shape identity. It is the expression of values. It is the fabric of relationships. And it is the capacity of a family to hold complexity across generations.
And so, in the face of these immense societal challenges, it is within families that preparedness must be built. No individual can carry these complexities alone. We must widen our lens: from the individual to the family; from one generation to many.
Generational wealth is about financial assets, yes, and it is equally about aligning families to purpose, values, and legacy. It is about being intentional with asset transfer, and knowledge transfer. And it is about building the systems, advisory supports, and communities that enable a family’s continued growth and success.
When generational wealth is our aspiration, family is our lens. And when we adopt that lens, one truth becomes clear: it is women who stand at the centre of it.
Stewards of Family Wealth
Our discussions today are not just about families, but also about Canada itself. For much of our history, we’ve prided ourselves on being a country of opportunity—where hard work and education could open doors to a better life. From our conversations with many of you, we know how deeply these values still matter. But today, as incomes fall behind the rising cost of housing, that promise feels far less certain.
The challenge before us, then, is to make sure effort and achievement still lead to opportunity for future generations. And women have a central role to play in making that happen. Women today live longer, stand to inherit more, and often inherit twice—once from parents, and again from a spouse. It was out of that experience of inheriting from a spouse that Women of Burgundy was born.
What began as a focus on transition has grown into a community of leadership. More and more, women are taking the lead as stewards of family wealth. And in a world where security comes less from what we earn and more from what we own, the choices we make—how we invest, how we plan, what we pass on, and even the policies we support—will shape both our families’ futures and the society we leave behind.
Turning Ideas into Action
We want to emphasize that we are on the front lines of the inheritance economy. It’s only since the 2008 global financial crisis that incomes and asset prices began to diverge sharply. By historical standards, this is still the beginning; shifts in wealth and society usually play out over many decades. And because it’s still early in this shift, we have an opportunity to prepare.
Today isn’t about having every answer. It’s about sharing ideas, testing perspectives, and building connections that move us forward. And when these conversations lead to clarity and that translates into action, real impact happens.
We take great satisfaction in knowing that our past two Minerva summits, and the conversations, decisions and actions that followed, have already made a difference. Here are some stories you’ve shared:
- Several of you have brought your children and grandchildren into investment meetings—passing on knowledge and responsibility to the next generation.
- A daughter in her late twenties starting a conversation with her parents about aging and preparedness, which led to downsizing the family home.
- Several women have started building advisory teams for their family, bringing together lawyers, financial advisors, and accountants, to support thoughtful decision making.
- And one woman was inspired to change careers, stepping into a bigger role in philanthropy.
All these examples highlight the growing agency among so many of you. Gaining knowledge, reducing stress, and building the confidence to plan for the future.
Our hope is that this year’s Summit helps you build on that journey, inspiring new conversations and action.
FROM SUMMIT TO COMMUNITY
The Minerva Summit brings together our community of women—and men—to explore meaningful themes at the intersection of women & wealth. In 2025, we gathered with remarkable experts in generational change, higher education, housing policy, geopolitics, investment and insurance planning, law, family governance and communication, and financial literacy for children.
Understanding how deeply this impacts families, we remain committed to learning alongside our community and sharing the knowledge and resources needed to manage the inheritance economy with greater confidence and clarity. We look forward to sharing our learnings in the next issue of Minerva Magazine, coming spring 2026.
This post is presented for illustrative and discussion purposes only. It is not intended to provide investment advice and does not consider unique objectives, constraints or financial needs. Under no circumstances does this post suggest that you should time the market in any way or make investment decisions based on the content. Select securities may be used as examples to illustrate Burgundy’s investment philosophy. Burgundy funds or portfolios may or may not hold such securities for the whole demonstrated period. Investors are advised that their investments are not guaranteed, their values change frequently and past performance may not be repeated. This post is not intended as an offer to invest in any investment strategy presented by Burgundy. The information contained in this post is the opinion of Burgundy Asset Management and/or its employees as of the date of the post and is subject to change without notice. Please refer to the Legal section of this website for additional information.
