I'm not quite sure where you're getting the $300k from, or what assumptions you're making around retirement spending, but my point was that there likely wouldn't be much of an inheritance to give if one assumed retiring on $1m even in today's dollars. Assuming ~20 years of retirement, that's $50k/yr. Many people's medical expenses would eat that up quickly as they get older, and that's not even getting into other living expenses, whether they have their overpriced home paid off, etc.