News headlines that scream of record highs for the stock market are meaningless for most Americans who are less likely to own equities than in 2007. But for households headed by someone 75 or older, the tripling value of the stock market since 2009 is more likely to have boosted wealth, Bloomberg reported.

Almost 49 percent of older households own stocks, up from 40 percent in 2007, just before the financial crisis, and about 35 percent in 2013, when many people were still recovering from the market’s steep decline, according to data from the Federal Reserve’s most recent Survey of Consumer Finances.

The elderly have had more time to build wealth, and they have experience with investing in stocks. Last year, the wealth gap between the oldest and youngest Americans (under age 35) was the biggest on record. The typical household headed by someone 75 or older boasted a net worth more than 24 times that of one headed by a person under 35.

With estate planning, many seniors are better off planning for their own livelihood rather than leaving anything for their kids or to a favorite charity. That’s especially true if the market tanks.

“It’s a very risky world,” Allan Roth, a financial planner at Wealth Logic LLC in Colorado Springs, told Bloomberg. At some point, “markets are going to plunge.”

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