The IRS estimated **52,264 beneficiaries** and **$252.063 billion in reported bequests** in its filing-year 2023 Table 4. The table groups beneficiaries named on sampled federal estate tax returns. It is not a count of all inheritances, probate distributions, trust distributions, or property transfers in the United States.
What the 2023 filing year means
The IRS filing-year tables cover returns filed during calendar year 2023. Most of those returns were filed for deaths in 2022, but extensions, earlier deaths, and a small number of 2023 deaths are also included. The filing year is therefore not the same thing as a year-of-death cohort.
The dollar amounts below are in thousands of dollars, as reported in the IRS workbook. The numbers in the second column count beneficiaries listed on Forms 706, Part 4, Lines 4 and 5. They do not count estates or unique decedents.
IRS 2023 bequests by beneficiary type
| Beneficiary type | Number of beneficiaries | Reported bequests ($000) |
|---|---|---|
| All beneficiaries | 52,264 | 252,063,443 |
| Spouse | 4,808 | 85,716,261 |
| Child | 15,167 | 74,806,738 |
| No information available, trust, unknown group, estate, or other entity | 8,126 | 70,380,444 |
| Other individual | 8,869 | 7,969,120 |
| Grandchild or great-grandchild | 6,362 | 3,775,180 |
| Nephew, niece, or god-child | 3,451 | 3,221,529 |
| Sibling | 1,116 | 2,478,802 |
| Step-child | 729 | 1,287,566 |
| Cousin | 946 | 749,470 |
| Son or daughter-in-law | 490 | 388,072 |
| Parent | 97 | 364,147 |
| Great or grand niece or nephew | 807 | 265,022 |
| Brother or sister-in-law | 263 | 174,337 |
| Divorced spouse | 132 | 167,229 |
| Charitable foundations or charitable trusts | 39 | 111,630 |
| Step, adopted, or foster grandchild | 289 | 105,414 |
| Great-grandchild | 569 | 102,483 |
Detail may not add to the total because of taxpayer reporting discrepancies and rounding. The IRS labels these figures as estimates based on a sample.
What this table does and does not measure
Table 4 reports bequests entered on Form 706, Part 4, Line 5. It excludes charitable bequests reported on Schedule O, which are handled as an estate-tax deduction. The spouse row also is not the same as the surviving-spouse deduction in Table 1. The IRS explains that Part 4 can include marital trusts and that Schedule M applies different adjustments.
The broad category for missing information, trusts, unknown groups, estates, and other entities includes family trusts. The IRS notes that these trusts often provide income to a spouse and residual income to children. The "other individual" category includes relationships such as grandparent, aunt, uncle, parent-in-law, foster child, adopted child, foster parent, and step or foster sibling.
These are reported Form 706 bequests, not a complete probate or trust distribution census. A return can omit transfers that were not reported in these lines, and many estates never file Form 706. The table cannot establish who received a particular parcel, whether a named beneficiary received the full amount, or how a will, trust, beneficiary designation, or court order distributed an estate.
Use the statistic with estate records
Use Table 4 for national context about the beneficiary categories reported in the IRS estate-tax study. For a specific estate, identify the decedent and matter, then review the will or trust, probate docket, distribution or accounting documents, beneficiary-designation records, deeds, and recorded fiduciary authority as applicable. Preserve the document date and the source jurisdiction.
The estate tax bequests and beneficiary statistics research page is the related research entry. For a named-person or asset question, investigative research services describes the source-tracing work needed to connect public records to a specific matter.
Source and limitations
Source: IRS, Statistics of Income Division, *Estate Tax Returns Study*, September 2025, Table 4, "Bequests Reported for Estate Tax Returns Filed in 2023 [1], by Beneficiary Type." The IRS filing-year table page and workbook were accessed August 8, 2026.
This article does not estimate the number of inheritances, the value of all transfers at death, the share of estates using trusts, or the prevalence of inherited real property. It is general research, not legal, tax, accounting, fiduciary, financial, or title advice.
Sources
- IRS, SOI Tax Stats: Estate tax filing-year tables, accessed August 8, 2026.
- IRS, SOI Tax Stats: What's new, September 2025 release note.
- IRS, 2023 Table 4 workbook, *Estate Tax Returns Study*, September 2025.