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How the Boomer wealth transfer could reshape global finance. Born too late to ride the wave of postwar prosperity, but just early enough to watch the 2008 financial crisis decimate some of their first paychecks. Old enough to remember dial-up. Young enough to buy Bitcoin on their phones. Theyve lived through tech booms, housing busts, meme stocks, student debt, and five different definitions of “retirement planning.” Now, as trillions in wealth begin to change hands, this generation stands to serve as a bridge between old capital and new code, traditional finance and the blockchain future. If handled wisely, this moment wont just shape the portfolios of younger investorsit could reshape the architecture of global finance itself. The $46 Trillion Handoff Roughly $124 trillion in wealth is expected to pass from baby boomers to younger generations by 2048, with millennials set to inherit the largest share: approximately $46 trillion over the next two decades. While Gen X is expected to inherit slightly more than millennials in the next 10 years, by the 2040s, millennials will take over as the dominant inheritorsand primary stewards of global capital. This isnt just a generational milestone. Its a once-in-history opportunity to redefine how capital is allocated, what assets are prioritized, and what financial frameworks endure. Millennials arent inheriting a set playbooktheyre writing a new one. Digital Assets Have Grown Up The timing couldnt be more significant. After years of growing pains, the digital asset space is undergoing a profound transformation. Following the collapse of FTX in 2022, the ecosystem began maturing rapidly. By 2024, a major inflection point arrived: The Securities and Exchange Commission approved the first spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs), marking a formal bridge between traditional finance and crypto. The ETFs shattered recordsunderscoring just how much pent-up demand existed among retail investors, registered investment advisers (RIAs), and institutions that had previously been locked out of the asset class. So far, nearly $41 billion has flowed into these products, a staggering figure for any ETF, let alone one tied to an asset recently dismissed as fringe. Additionally, North Americas crypto market is now dominated by large transfers over $1 millionabout 70% of transaction volumereflecting deep institutional involvement. And its not just about ETFs. Major institutions are integrating crypto into their offerings in tangible ways: Mastercard and Visa are experimenting with stablecoin settlements. Lyft is leveraging Hivemapper for road data. AT&T is offloading traffic onto the Heliu network. This isnt the Wild West anymore. Regulation is clarifying. Infrastructure is stabilizing. And serious capital is arriving. The Bridge Generation So, which generation is most naturally situated to carry digital assets into the financial mainstream? Not Gen Z (at least, not yet). While 42% of these young investors own cryptocurrency, only 11% have a retirement account, indicating a preference for immediate, high-risk investments over long-term financial planning. Not boomers, either, who have largely opted outjust 8% hold digital assets, while 64% have more traditional retirement accounts. Millennials, however, are fluent in both financial worlds. Theyre almost equally likely to invest in crypto as they are in retirement accounts36% own cryptocurrency, and 34% have retirement plans. They understand ETFs and decentralized finance, spreadsheets and stablecoins. They grew up with the internet and came of age during the 2008 crisis. Theyre old enough to remember the dot-com bust, young enough to see blockchains promise. In short: Millennials have a tech-native mindset and a healthy respect for risk. That balance matters. Surveys show that millennials are more comfortable investing in crypto than any older cohort. In fact, 62% of millennial ETF investors say they plan to allocate to crypto ETFs, making it the No. 1 asset class for that age group. And theyre not just speculating12% believe crypto is the best place to invest for long-term goals, compared to just 5% of boomers. This makes millennials uniquely qualified to shepherd digital assets out of their adolescence and into legitimacy. Market-Wide Impact As nearly $85 trillion moves into the hands of Gen X and millennials combined, every asset manager, RIA, and financial institution will be forced to adapt. Catering to these investors wont just mean better digital UX or TikTok explainers. Itll mean rethinking allocations, product offerings, and frameworks that may have, until recently, assumed digital assets are fringe. They are not. Not anymore. The generation that straddled Web2 and Web3 is about to call the shots. They speak the language of blockchain and the cadence of capital markets. That dual fluency will define the next phase of global investingand determine whether crypto becomes a credible pillar of the financial system or stalls as a misunderstood asset class, never realizing its broader potential. The opportunity isnt in betting on crypto. Its in building the institutions, tools, and strategies for a world where digital assets are simply part of the portfolio. And that world? Its coming faster than most expect.
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E-Commerce
While remote work offers several benefits such as flexibility, working from home can also be lonely. In one survey almost a quarter (23%) of remote workers reported feeling lonely. Loneliness at work can result in decreased productivity, and feelings of dissatisfaction. Emotional intelligence can help us understand what to do to feel more connected at work. Here are four steps to take: Develop Self-Awareness Most of us experience periods of loneliness. Being self-aware allows us to better recognize when we are feeling lonely, link it to what is going on at the time, and come up with solutions. Even being able to express what we are feeling can help alleviate loneliness, as naming what we’re feeling helps us to gain more control over our emotions. Consider journaling when you feel lonely to understand what youre feeling, as well as what situations cause these feelings. Discovering the circumstances that cause loneliness may help you avoid or alleviate loneliness in the future. Manage Emotions There are various methods for regulating and coping with our emotions, and one size does not fit all. Some methods that are known to work are deep breathing, mindfulness, walking in nature, or simply getting away momentarily from the setting we are in. I have found taking a short break from whatever is stressing me out and imagining a relaxed pleasurable experience helps me regulate my emotions. Experiment with different practices to learn what works for you. Increase Empathy If we are high in empathy, we will be more likely to reach out to others if we are experiencing feelings of loneliness. One way to increase empathy is to identify the emotions you hear someone bring up in conversations. For example: “I hear you are feeling angry, sad, or afraid. Chances are others share our feelings, and may be hesitant to reach out, unaware that others are struggling with the same problem. By increasing our empathy and reaching out, we form bonds, increase vulnerability, openness, and connection. Knowing that we are not alone in our situation and having people we can reach out to for support can go a long way in making us feel more connected. Build connections As humans we are hardwired to connect with others. This becomes even more important for remote workers. Creating opportunities to build connections is something that everyone needs to take ownership of, from leaders on down. Set aside some social time where everyone can share what is going on in their lives apart from work. If you have regular online meetings, take a few minutes to share something personal, such as challenges, struggles, and joys. If you have colleagues in the same city, try to get together in person on occasion. Encourage and support each other to come up with ideas on how to connect. Leadership could also host office lunches, where the company covers the cost of lunch and provides space for an informal online get-together. One of the ongoing topics could be how other people experience loneliness and what tools they use to work through it. Leaders can use their emotional intelligence to combat the loneliness associated with remote work. In my book Bigger Hearted: a Retired Pediatricians Prescriptions for Living a Happier Life, I describe how the head of a local mental health center worked to alleviate loneliness on his team. He called each of them during their work hours, staying up late for several nights so he could talk to those who covered late-night emergencies. It may also help to seek value and connection outside of work, whether through time with family and friends, hobbies, or volunteer work. Having something where you know you will be seen, heard, and supported can help alleviate loneliness and offer a bright spot in the day to look forward to.
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E-Commerce
Outside a warehouse in a Los Angeles suburb, there’s a fascinating experiment underway in how people can live in places at high risk of flooding. A prototype of a new type of housing has been undergoing tests in a large tank of water. The homes, made from a kit of plastic parts, are designed for flood zones: The foundation and the watertight shell of the house can float. When the water rises, the house rises, too. Normally, it just sits on land, says Charles Wee, the architect behind the design. And then during a flood, it can actually just rise in the same position. Wee spent most of his career working on conventional high-rise projects. But a decade ago, after visiting a relative who worked with indigenous communities in the Amazon, he decided to change direction. He’d seen how people living along the Amazon River lost their homessimple shacks on stiltsevery time the river flooded. Globally, more than a billion people face a significant risk of flooding, and that number is growing. Wee began considering how to build housing in flood plains differently. Learning from a disaster At first, Wee wasnt sure how to approach the idea of making a buoyant home. But he happened to see a photo taken after the 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Japan. The image showed wreckage from destroyed buildings filling the coastline. Wee noticed large blue boxes floating intact in the water. He discovered that they were molded tanks used by the fishing industry. They were cheap to produce and seamless, so water couldnt intrude. He realized that he could use the same low-cost manufacturing technique to make building parts. Wee closed his own lucrative architecture practice and founded a startup, LifeArk, to work on the new concept. The development was challenging. He wanted to make homes that would not only be resilient in floods, but that could withstand other disasters, including earthquakes, hurricanes, and wildfires. After years of R&D, his team had a system that worked. It also meets the requirements of the California building code, one of the most restrictive building codes in the world. In its factory in Californias Central Valley, the company now makes prefab housing parts using rotational molding, the process uses to make other hollow plastic products like coolers or playground equipment. Inside a large machine, a plastic-filled mold rotates, producing seamless roofs, doors, columns, and other parts. The shell is high-density polyethylene (HDPE), the same plastic used in products like milk jugs and shampoo bottles. Its filled with foam insulation that makes it energy efficient, strong, and buoyant. A better use for plastic Most plastic is used in the worst possible way, Wee says. But one of plastic’s environmental flawsthe fact that it doesnt easily break downcan be an advantage in a building. Plastic will last 100 years without degradation, he says. Its a great material to build homes, but we use it to make shopping bags. LifeArk’s homes, which are the first to use plastic as a load-bearing material, can last longer than modular homes made from more typical building materials. At the end of a home’s life, the manufacturer can fully recycle the plastic. (The company also uses around 30% postconsumer recycled material.) Plastic makes the homes resilient in earthquakes. In seismic testing on shake tables, the material was flexible enough that it bent but never broke. Similarly, in a hurricane, the buildings can bend in strong winds. Making the homes resilient to fires was a bigger challenge, since plastic easily melts. But the team developed a compound thats mixed into the plastic that makes it carbonize in the event of a fire, forming a layer of black soot so the fire cant penetrate and it self-extinguishes. The Lego-like parts can be assembled into simple 8-by-8-foot modules without equipment. Then those modules can be laid out into homes. In one version of the housing, with a floating foundation and piers, the homes can adjust to floods or float permanently on water. (One proposal from the company looked at how the design could be used for ocean-based housing in the Marshall Islands to help deal with sea level rise.) In another version, the modules sit on a foundation thats raised 28 inches above the ground. The company has already built multiple projects, with others underway. But so far, the first developments havent yet used the amphibious version. Because the concept is new, it isnt yet possible to insure. It also needs to overcome regulatory barriers. The first projects use a more standard foundation, though they also have advantages in flood zones. A new solution for supportive housing In a project in Watsonville, California, the design makes it possible to build in a flood zone. When a nonprofit in the small city wanted to build housing for people experiencing homelessness in a church parking lot, they initially planned to use another type of modular housing. But it would have cost $1 million to raise the other homes above the flood level. Because LifeArk’s homes are already raised off the ground, it was far less expensive to make the housing high enough to avoid an extreme flood. The company also used the design in other supportive housing projects. In West L.A., one project that just opened on a city-owned parking lot includes 33 bedrooms and bathrooms around a central courtyard. Another project that opened last year, in an L.A. suburb, has 25 units for short-term stays for people experiencing homelessness. [Image Rendering: LifeArk] For supportive housing like ths, the design can help significantly reduce costs. Its faster to build than other modular housing, with less labor required. The raised design also allows contractors to install utilities under the homes, rather than in trenches underground that are expensive to build. The company’s first project, in another L.A. suburb, demonstrated the advantages. “At the time, California was spending a minimum of half a million dollars a unit for housing,” Wee says. “That was our first project, and so we made a lot of mistakes. But we still came up at least two to three times faster and at least half the cost.” As production scales up, the cost could come down further, making it more viable for use in disasters and in developing countries. And as the company builds more supportive housing projects, it’s still working to make the amphibious version of the housing a reality. “There’s ample evidence that it will be far more economical in the long term to build an amphibious house in flood-prone zones than to repair homes damaged by floods,” says Wee. “I am a strong believer that if we can crack this nutmostly regulatory and insurancethis could open up whole new housing opportunities.”
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E-Commerce
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