Millions of Americans are counting on family money to be financially stable

The key to your financial future may lie in your parents’ bank account.

One in three Americans say their financial stability is dependent on receiving an inheritance, according to a survey released Thursday by Merrill Edge, an online discount brokerage service provided by Bank of America Merrill Lynch Some 36% of Generation X-ers and 32% of millennials and 20% of baby boomers say they’re relying on their family fortunes.

For Generation Z, which is aged 18 to 22, this number jumps to 63%, despite 87% describing their approach to financial decisions as “do-it-myself.” Planning ahead is smart, but relying on money that may never materialize is not, said Aron Levine, head of Merrill Edge. “We’ve never seen such a strong reliance on receiving an inheritance,” he said.

The 1,000 respondents in the Merrill Edge survey said they were most likely to describe the stock market as “volatile” (34%), although it doesn’t appear to be deterring them from investing. Most Americans (57%) say they made money in the stock market in the past year with Generation X-ers (67%) and those older (68%), citing the most financial gains.

Don’t miss: 10 things billionaires won’t tell you

Many of the world’s richest people are already transferring their money to their children. Ultra high-net-worth individuals will transfer $3.9 trillion to the next generation by 2026, according to a study released last year by global wealth consultancy Wealth-X. This reflects a 5% decline from the report’s 2014 estimate of $4.1 trillion.