Parents must stop spending their kids' inheritance or their children face an extremely bleak future, at least according to research by life and pensions company Friends Provident.
Retirement savings provider Friends Provident has launched a surprise attack on the modern lifestyles of seniors by effectively suggesting that they are acting irresponsibly towards their children.
The statement is a conclusion based on the Friends Provident-commissioned Lasting Lifestyles report.
The research highlights the need for parents to consider their children’s financial future – as well as their own – if they want their children to enjoy a secure and stable future.
The report has also led the life and pensions firm to criticize the so called ‘SKIing’ phenomenon. SKIers are seniors that Spend their Kids’ Inheritance by continuing to enjoy an ostentatious lifestyle.
‘SKIers’ enjoy life to the full and splash out on career breaks, volunteering, mountaineering – in fact anything but retiring. They spend around GBP240 billion every year on leisure and account for 40% of consumer spending. However, the more SKIers spend, the more uncertain the future faced by those relying on them.
Jeremy Ward, head of pensions marketing at Friends Provident, forecasts: Going forward, inherited wealth will become part of many more families’ long-term financial planning and increasingly parents will turn to life and retirement coaches to help them achieve balance. This doesn’t spell the death of the SKIer, but simply the start of a new era of sensible SKIing.