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Article: Assets and Wealth
- Article from:
- Encyclopedia of Aging
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CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2002 The Gale Group Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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ASSETS AND WEALTH
This entry deals with the wealth holdings of older Americans and also addresses a number of interrelated issues, such as how much wealth the typical older household owns and in what form they decide to hold their wealth. The more difficult question of why some older American households have accumulated so much wealth while many others have almost nothing at all is also discussed. Finally, this entry explores what the future plans of the elderly might be about the disposition of this wealth.
Data sources
Until the last decades of the twentieth century, little was known about the wealth of older adults. This was unfortunate since household wealth is an important ...