I have lots of friends with trust funds. All are old money.

Lucky b*stards!

Anonymous wrote:Probably about 1%. Think about it though, if 1% is “rich” I’m this country, but you live in an area where almost everyone is a 1%er, I will feel like everyone is a 1%er. So, it’s possible that everyone you sister knows does have a trust fund.

This. Particularly if you travel in certain professional circles in DC, there are a lot of people with under-the-radar family wealth. As someone mentioned upthread, most trust funds "only" have a few hundred thousand in them. That's not the kind of money that exempts you from working. So there's probably a ton of people in DC who have a trust fund or similar but still work in Big Law and consulting because they can't live off the trust. They can, however, use the trust to buy a home or put down a sizable downpayment, make investments, and other things.

It took me about a decade of living and working in DC to figure out that the reason I couldn't keep up with the spending habits of so many colleagues or friends from grad school is because, unlike me, they were not living/saving from their salary alone. It's embarrassing to say that, and of course I knew some people had family money, but for so long I just thought everyone was financing these fancy vacations and massive bar tabs on credit cards and was secretly judgmental. Turns out they could afford trips, clothes, and socializing that I could not because their family's funded their housing (and often also their vacations and wardrobes) even into their 30s. It was actually a relief when I realized it because I had previously thought that I was just missing some obvious way to stretch my income, like some investment strategy that magically netted a spare 50k a year or something. Nope.

Anonymous wrote:My kids don’t even know they have trust funds.

Same here. We don't plan to tell our kids until at the earliest, college.

I have one but I dont have access to it yet and wont for a while. Shrug. I'm not banking my hopes and dreams on it

I am a lawyer + lobbyist. I know several. Very typical at elite D.C. Private schools

Hard to know - we never talk about it with friends.

My kids don’t even know they have trust funds.

i don’t know anyone with a trust fund and I grew up in Bethesda. Much more common is generational wealth and inheritance.

Anonymous wrote:Not everybody that receives money from family has it in a trust.

the opposite is also true -/not everyone that has one gets money from it. I’m told my brother and I have one, but I’m 47 and he is 52 and we have never seen a dime from it (parent still alive), so maybe it’ll make my retirement better or maybe I wont have to stress about sending my kids to college but I’ve worked and saved assuming it is non-existent.

The other thing is, many people (myself included) have planned what is called a testamentary trust, which means that my will says when I die my assets and life insurance proceeds go into a trust for my kids. there is no trust now, but there will be when I go. there are a number of reasons to do this - estate tax protection by not leaving it all to my spouse who then has to leave it together with his assets to the kids (more likely to trigger estate tax), allows for a trustee (either spouse or, if he’s dead, my brother) to be a trustee in case our kids arent ready to inherit a bunch of money, etc. so people could call that a trust fund, but it doesnt mean it is millions - could be a few hundred thousand.

Definitely less than 1%. I'd guess 0.1 percent-ish? So one in a thousand people?

Why did the post about EHS grads having TFs disappear? Is the audience of this sub so blue collar that it offended them?

lol.

2-5% at best.

I had a trust fund but it wasn’t much (under 100k). Inheriting millions is not common.

Probably about 1%. Think about it though, if 1% is “rich” I’m this country, but you live in an area where almost everyone is a 1%er, I will feel like everyone is a 1%er. So, it’s possible that everyone you sister knows does have a trust fund.

I’ve only known one for sure and he married me.