The great Boomer hoard: Americans 55 and over hold $140 trillion, roughly three-quarters of total net worth

Americans over 55 now sit on about $140 trillion in wealth, according to a Bank of America Institute report released October 1 and based on Federal Reserve data. That’s roughly three-quarters of U.S. net worth. It’s a staggering concentration, and it’s changing who has the money to keep spending when the broader economy wobbles.

The biggest winners are boomers. Bank of America says they own 54% of all U.S. stocks, and their net worth rose by more than 20% over the past two years as equity markets climbed. The report ties that surge to the same market boom that has driven a huge share of index returns through technology and AI. In other words, the stock market did not just make paper gains. It filled retirement accounts and household balance sheets.

But the money is not spread evenly, even inside the older cohort. The wealthiest 10% of boomer households controlled 71% of boomer wealth in 2022, while nearly a third of Americans 55 and older had no retirement savings. Fed data cited by Fortune show just how skewed the stock market itself is: the bottom half of U.S. households held $0.37 trillion in stocks and mutual funds in the second quarter, while the top 0.1% held $16.15 trillion.

That matters because older Americans are already a giant share of consumer demand. They make up about 31% of the population but control roughly 75% of net worth, and Bank of America says they have “considerable capacity to spend on travel and other leisure categories.” Its card data from January through July 2026 show older households putting more of their spending into groceries, less into restaurants, gasoline, general merchandise and clothing, and households aged 61 to 75 spending more on travel. Airlines have seen that travel share recover faster than the overall group since the pandemic, though it’s still below 2019 levels.

The flip side is obvious. A market that props up retirement wealth can also create a very narrow engine for consumer demand. Older households are helping keep spending alive now, but the same setup leaves them exposed if stocks reverse, especially since the 10 largest 401(k) mutual funds now average a 38% allocation to tech and communication services, according to Morningstar data cited by Fortune.