On 9 October 2026 the Federal Reserve published its 2025 Survey of Consumer Finances, a detailed look at American family balance sheets carried out every three years. One finding stands out: unlike in the previous few surveys, families headed by someone aged 75 or older now have the highest net worth of any age group.
All figures below come from the Fed’s release and its bulletin, “Changes in U.S. Family Finances from 2022 to 2025”. They are in 2025 dollars, adjusted for inflation with the Fed’s “current methods” consumer price index, and compare 2025 with the 2022 survey. The Fed interviewed 4,367 families.
The headline numbers
- Median family net worth rose 2% to $215,900. The mean rose 7% to about $1.24 million.
- Median family income rose 7% to $82,200, while mean income fell 6% to $145,200. Income is measured for the year before the survey.
- The share of families whose debt payments take more than 40% of their income rose from 6.5% to 8.6%. The bulletin calls it the largest share since 2010.
The median is the family in the middle; the mean is pulled up by the richest. The Fed notes that when the mean grows faster than the median, it usually signals relative gains at the top.
Old and young
Median net worth by the age of the family head, in 2025:
- Under 35: $33,000, down 23%.
- 55 to 64: $411,900, up 3%.
- 65 to 74: $431,300, down 4%.
- 75 and older: $504,900, up 37%.
The Fed says the oldest group’s gain was mainly driven by the rising value of retirement accounts, and that the survey also recorded a larger share of families over 75. For families under 35, it points to the unwinding of business equity gains made between 2019 and 2022.
At the top
Among the 10% of families with the highest net worth, the median rose 19% to about $4.94 million and the mean 5% to about $8.98 million. The Fed’s tables also show a 31% rise, to about $3.67 million, in the median net worth of the top 10% by usual income. The two groups are easy to confuse.
Why it matters for families
When the richest age group is over 75, much of the next generation will inherit in middle age, and the decisions about how wealth passes are being made now. Our post on succession plans shows how often those conversations are put off.
A fair caveat
The survey is a sample, so every figure carries a margin of error. Medians cannot be added up, and changes between surveys reflect both what happened to families and who falls into each group. The oldest families’ gains rest largely on market values, which can fall.
What to watch
- Whether young families recover in the next survey, due for 2028.
- Whether more families cross the 40% debt-payment line.
- How retirement accounts, the main source of older families’ gains, fare in a weaker market.
Questions to bring to your advisors
Who in our family holds most of the wealth, and how old are they? If it passes in the next ten to fifteen years, are the heirs, the documents and the accounts ready? These are questions to bring to your advisors, not advice.