Publications
The Silver Tsunami, the Great Wealth Transfer and the future of employee ownership in the United States:
Leveraging generational changes and shifting economics to scale a powerful model of shared prosperity
Published March 2025
We connect the dots between the “silver tsunami” opportunity to scale employee ownership (EO)—the great wave of baby boomer business owner retirement—and the economic trends flowing from the Great Wealth Transfer.
With the silver tsunami, there is an unprecedented opportunity in the U.S. today to scale EO. In fact, if just 10% of all silver tsunami businesses ripe for EO transition could convert to employee-owned, this would sustain an estimated 57,000 small businesses and 2.6 million jobs, and create wealth for 8.2 million people.
EO’s path to scale can be significantly accelerated by the Great Wealth Transfer. New wealth holders—women and new generations of diverse, values-aligned investors—are becoming even stronger economic forces, and have growing pools of capital that are ripe for values-aligned investing—like donor-advised funds.
We track these trends, along with promising reforms in public policy, and tell the story of the current opportunities to scale EO, in a way that can galvanize stakeholders across capital markets to engage and take action.
Download the paper today:
The Great Wealth Transfer in numbers: Growing aligned investors and pools of capital for EO investment
Join us for two events that bring the Great Wealth Transfer opportunities to life!
As part of our white paper’s release, the Ownership Capital Lab is hosting a speaker series related to the paper’s topics with experts and practitioners from across the country. Join us for these powerful conversations!
🗓️ April 24, at 11 am PT (2 pm ET): NextGen investors for social impact: The power to scale EO (upcoming!)
Through the Great Wealth Transfer, $99.7 trillion will pass to younger generations by 2048. Millennials and Gen Z are far more likely to invest their dollars to have positive social impact. Hear from experts about new strategies and approaches to supporting, advising, and guiding NextGen investors and philanthropists.
🗓️ March 20, at 11 am PT (2 pm ET): Women’s growing economic power to scale the Ownership Economy (view recording)
With $54 trillion forecasted to transfer to women by 2048 as part of the Great Wealth Transfer, women investors will become an even more influential driver of economic growth, positioning them as key partners in scaling employee ownership