Hot Topics: Boomers' Kids Can't Count on Inheritance

You've seen the bumper sticker, "We're Spending our Kids' Inheritance." Well, it may be true. Less than half of wealthy baby boomers say they think it's important to leave their kids any dough, a new survey finds.

In a survey of millionaire boomers by investment firm U.S. Trust, only 49 percent say it is important to leave money to their children when they die, Walter Hamilton reports in the Los Angeles Times.

Some boomers are caught between the desire to enjoy a long-awaited retirement and the pressure of financial concerns in a tough economy. "I do not see my baby boomer clients giving up a vacation or wine or dinners out so that they can leave more money to their children, because they feel like they've already done it for their kids," Susan Colpitts, executive vice president of a wealth management firm in Norfolk, Va., tells the Times.

Wealthy boomers may hold back on inheritances for other reasons, too, experts say. One-quarter of boomers worry that their children will become lazy, and one in five fear that the kids will squander the money, according to the U.S. Trust survey. More than half of the respondents haven't told their children how much they're worth.

In other news this week:

LinkedIn Adds Volunteerism in Profile: The company announced Wednesday that users can now add a new "Volunteer Experience & Causes" field to profiles. New research from LinkedIn shows that volunteer experience may help you land a job. Forty-one percent of the professionals surveyed said that when evaluating candidates, they consider volunteer work as valuable as paid work experience. Twenty percent of the hiring managers surveyed said they have made a hiring decision based on a candidate's volunteer work experience.

School for the Second Half of Life: The Encore Career Institute wants to help struggling older workers land jobs and plans to offer online fast-track certificate programs by fall 2012 for older adults seeking to upgrade or learn new job skills. This AARP report says tuition is expected to run $5,000 to $10,000 for six- to 18-month certificate programs in health care, finance, green technology and other growing fields.

Entrepreneur Wannabes: Talk of lost jobs and underemployment has more Americans dreaming of starting their own businesses. Three-quarters of U.S. adults who work full or part time say they'd leave their jobs to be entrepreneurs, according to an Aflac survey conducted by Harris Interactive in August. In the survey, 69 percent of employed adults say the main reason they work is for the paycheck, and 35 percent say the "spirit of the U.S. work force is broken," according to a UPI report.

ABC to Release Jackie Kennedy's Secret White House Tapes: Shortly after JFK's assassination, First Lady Jackie Kennedy recorded a series of tapes with historian Arthur Schlesinger Jr. but requested that the tapes remain sealed in a vault for 50 years. Family members have agreed to make the tapes public. ABC says the first lady talks about her three tumultuous years living in the White House, according to Business Insider.

Eddie Murphy to Host Oscars: The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has chosen Eddie Murphy to host the 84th annual Academy Awards. Aside from the Shrek movies, the 50-year-old actor has been somewhat out of the spotlight since his 2007 hit, Norbit. As Dorothy Pomerantz of Forbes points out, stunt hosting, such as last year's attempt to attract a younger audience by bringing on James Franco and Anne Hathaway, hasn't helped the show much in the ratings department.

Giffords-Kelly Memoir Coming Nov. 15: The joint chronicle of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and her husband, soon-to-be-retired astronaut Mark Kelly, is coming out Nov. 15, the Associated Press reports. The book, titled Gabby: A Story of Courage and Hope, was written with The Last Lecture co-author Jeffrey Zaslow. Giffords is still recovering from the Jan. 8 shooting when a gunman opened fire outside a Tucson, Ariz.-area grocery store.

Five Great Vacations for Readers: Love to read? Why not schedule a reading retreat where you can unwind and get lost in your book for hours. Irene S. Levine highlights retreats for book lovers in a post for LifeGoesStrong.com. Her top pick: The Nines Hotel in Portland, Ore., where you don't even have to bring your own books -- the hotel has a floor-to-ceiling collection curated by Powell's Books.

Website of the Week: Turntable Kitchen helps you pair great food with great music. With a focus on local, in-season recipes and hand-selected album reviews, the San Francisco-based site is designed to introduce food lovers to music and vice versa.

Last Word: "Worst of all, I've broken a cardinal rule of art, music and career paths: actors are supposed to act, and musicians are supposed to music. That's how it works. You don't buy fish from a dentist, or ask a plumber for financial advice, so why listen to an actor's music?" --star of Fox's House, Hugh Laurie, who just released a new CD