Is the inheritance boom changing the distribution of wealth in the United States?

In "Inheritances and the distribution of wealth or whatever happened to the great inheritance boom?", Edward N. Wolff of New York University and Maury Gittleman of the Bureau of Labor Statistics investigate two main questions: First, have inheritances and other wealth transfers become more important over time? Second, how much, if at all, do inheritances and other wealth transfers contribute to overall wealth inequality? Their research makes use of data for 1989 to 2007 from the Federal Reserve Board's Survey of Consumer Finances. Their results suggest that wealth transfers decrease wealth inequality rather than increasing it, though they apply a number of caveats to this result.