Bill Perkins says parents should rethink when they pass on wealth. The hedge fund multimillionaire and author of Die with Zero: Getting All You Can from Your Money and Your Life says inheritance can matter more in a child’s 20s than after death.
Speaking with Fortune Daily host Ellie Austin, Perkins said parents who already plan to leave money to their children should consider putting it in a trust and giving it out between ages 28 and 33. He said brain function reaches peak mental acuity at 28 on average and begins to decline and plateau starting at 33.
'The utility of money starts to decline and the seasons of your life start to pass you by,' he said.
Perkins made his first million dollars before age 30. He said the usual practice of waiting until death can mean the money arrives too late to do the most good. In his view, if the money is meant for the children, then 'that's their money, not your money.'
He also said that waiting for death leaves too much to chance. The parent may die too late for the inheritance to solve a real problem. It can also mean the parent outlives some of the children.
The book points to data from the Federal Reserve Board showing that the most common age to receive an inheritance is 60. Perkins said that timing often misses the window when money can change a life.
He cited the example of Virginia Colin, who raised four children on her own after a divorce and struggled financially even while her mother had resources. After her mother died when Colin was 49, she and each of her siblings received $130,000. By then, Colin said, she was no longer 'at the edge of poverty.' She said the money would have been far more valuable earlier.
Perkins said younger adults are under more pressure than earlier generations. He pointed to about half of Americans ages 18 to 29 living with their parents as mortgage rates rise near 7%, the median age of a first-time homebuyer rising to 40 last year from 28 in 1991, and the Federal Reserve raising interest rates for the first time since 2023 after the August consumer price index rose 0.4%.
He argued that inheritance can do more at a younger age, whether for a down payment on a home or to pay off student loans. Later in life, he said, the same money may not carry the same force.
Perkins framed the habit of waiting until death as a reflex, not a careful plan. 'That is not really thinking about your kids,' he said. 'That's kind of like an autopilot decision that's been passed down from generation to generation.'
There is a market lesson in that view. Capital does not help families most when it sits idle for decades. It helps when it is deployed while needs, costs, and opportunity are all still moving. For households under pressure, timing is not a side issue. It is the whole game.
