This article draws from insights in the Business Insider Today newsletter.

The promised great wealth transfer is occurring, but it is bypassing the expected beneficiaries.

Steep long-term elder care costs are carving deeply into the trillions of dollars in assets held by baby boomers, funds originally destined for their Gen X and millennial offspring.

Zach Hefferen recounted the exorbitant expenses of caring for his father, who endured dementia for over a decade. The memory care facility his father entered charged $17,000 per month, depleting nearly all of his lifetime savings in the 16 months before he passed away.

Heart-wrenching as Zach and his father's experience is, it reflects a widespread reality. Boomers and their adult children grapple with the immense healthcare costs of aging. (If you are facing this challenge, we invite your perspective.)

This remains a profoundly awkward discussion. No one wants parents to suspect they are tallying inheritance prematurely. Yet, an unforeseen diagnosis or shortfall in retirement funds can swiftly derail one's final years into financial chaos.

The strain extends beyond funding full-time aides or assisted-living residences. It often demands pausing careers to provide hands-on care for aging parents.

This duty largely burdens daughters, with severe repercussions. One analysis reveals that unpaid family caregiving costs U.S. women an average of $295,000 in foregone wages and retirement savings across their lifetimes.

Business Insider's Katie Notopoulos examined the chilling "millennial daughter tax."

For others, elder care answers lie overseas.

Peter and Rita Millard have resided for several years in a facility in northern Thailand, a magnet for international retirees. Peter shared with Business Insider that the community, averaging $1,914 monthly per resident, serves as an "insurance policy" for those left behind.

Mexico offers another economical avenue for prolonged elder care, with assisted-living rates typically spanning $1,000 to $2,000 monthly.

Many are banding together in multigenerational homes, a growing trend covered in depth by Business Insider. These setups mitigate the economic loads of both childcare and eldercare.

Concurrently, progress in longevity science portends an aggravated problem, as lifespans stretch far past retirement provisions.