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Baby boomers and the silent generation own nearly $25 trillion in real estate combined.
Inheriting real estate, especially luxury vacation homes, can trigger family feuds over a slew of issues from upkeep costs to redecorating rights.
Lawyers to the rich share tips on how to pass down homes without sibling drama and a massive tax bill.

A local house with a porch in Edgartown on Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts, USA.
Wolfgang Kaehler | Lightrocket | Getty Images

A version of this article first appeared in CNBC’s Inside Wealth newsletter with Robert Frank, a weekly guide to the high-net-worth investor and consumer. Sign up to receive future editions, straight to your inbox.
The great wealth transfer is leading to a great real estate transfer, with up to $25 trillion in real estate owned by older generations that could get passed down — and fought over — in their families.

According to Cerulli Associates, $105 trillion is expected to be passed down by baby boomers and older generations by 2048. Real estate, including primary and vacation homes, as well as investment properties, is expected to be a large component. The silent generation and baby boomers own nearly $25 trillion in real estate combined, according to the Federal Reserve.
Yet with property comes conflict. Wealth advisors say handing down real estate is increasingly filled with both financial and emotional pitfalls for families, ranging from taxes and maintenance costs to disputes over ownership and usage. The straightforward solution is just to sell it and divide the proceeds.
“Some people want to retain the house and other children don’t,” said BNY Wealth’s Jere Doyle. “I can tell you, as a practical matter, there’s going to be fights. There’s going to be disagreements. You’re not going to have the perfect situation.”
But lawyers and wealth planners say there are measures families can take to more effectively pass down real estate to minimize taxes, costs and family battles. Here are five secrets to successful real estate inheritances, whether it’s an apartment on Park Avenue, a beach house on the Vineyard or a ranch in Montana. 

1. Transfer real estate in your will or through a trust to avoid a major tax bill.

Passing down vacation homes is the most fraught, said Elisa Rizzo of J.P. Morgan Private Bank. Her clients often downsize their primary residences later in life, but families stay attached to their second homes.

“That vacation home, often for our families that are very mobile, becomes the centering place,” said Rizzo, head of family office advisory at JP Morgan. “The vacation homes are where people go, and they make really special memories with one another, whether it’s a ski house up in Vermont or a vacation home on Nantucket.” 
Doyle advises against gifting long-held real estate before you die. If your heirs choose to sell the property, they have to pay capital gains taxes on the property’s appreciation since the parents originally bought the property.
“If you give during your lifetime, the kids take your cost basis,” said Doyle, senior estate planning strategist for BNY Wealth. “One of the things that people have to bear in mind is that the senior generation probably didn’t pay an awful lot for the property.”
There are ways to minimize the tax burden, such as using a qualified personal residence trust. However, if you can afford to wait, it is best to leave real estate to your heirs in your will or in a trust at death, according to Doyle. If the heirs later sell the property, they only have to pay capital gains taxes on how much the home has appreciated since they inherited it.

2. Use LLCs and trusts to shield the home from lawsuits.

Rather than having the heirs own the property directly, lawyers recommend placing homes in a limited liability company and setting up a trust for the kids’ benefit that holds interest in the LLC. 
These legal maneuvers protect assets in several ways. For instance, if a vacation home is rented and a tenant slips and falls, the heirs are not held personally liable for any damages. 
“Your other assets, stocks, bonds, are not subject to any creditors’ claims,” Doyle said.
It also shields heirs from the liabilities of their siblings, according to Dan Griffith, director of wealth strategy at Huntington Private Bank. For instance, if one heir files for bankruptcy, the LLC structure prevents the creditors from putting a lien on the shared home, he said. 
You can also save on transfer taxes by gifting interest in an LLC that owns the property rather than putting heirs’ names on the deed, Griffith said. Since these fractional interests are illiquid, parents can claim a discount on the taxable value.

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3. Outline who gets to use the home and how. 

Parents can put rules in place with an operating agreement for the LLC. Clients can use the document to make sure the home doesn’t end up in the hands of their children’s spouses, which is a common concern, according to Northern Trust’s Laura Mandel.
“Typically families want to retain these properties along the bloodline,” said the chief fiduciary officer.
Parents can restrict an LLC interest from transferring to surviving or former spouses of their children. With a well-drawn trust, it would be difficult for the spouse to contest it in court, Mandel said. These operating agreements often include buyout provisions that allow the heirs to buy out the spouse.
Parents can also use the document to guide how the property is used, such as laying out how many holiday weekends each child gets, who has the right to redecorate or whether the home can be rented out or used for weddings.
Leaving these issues unaddressed can cause fights among siblings. Mandel recalled a set of four siblings with a large ranch out west that they rented out frequently. After complaints that the ranch felt like a “VRBO,” Mandel helped the siblings reach an agreement on how the property could be used.

4. Set aside liquid assets for the house’s upkeep and insurance.

Money is the most common trigger for family feuds, Griffith said. An inherited home can quickly become a financial burden unless the parents also set aside cash to pay for the upkeep. 
“What ends up inevitably happening there is that one person pays the bills, and then enormous resentment grows, because either that person has to ask their siblings or cousins for money and sometimes those people don’t pay,” he said. “Or they say, ‘Hey, I’m the one paying all the bills. How come I don’t get to use this more often than any of the rest of you?'” 
Doyle recommends that parents use liquid assets like marketable securities or take out a life insurance policy in order to endow the trust. This outlay makes it possible for siblings to hold onto the home even if they can’t afford to share the expenses.
“In a lot of cases, you may have some kids that can afford to pay the maintenance expenses, and others can’t, so how do you treat them equally?” he said.
However, the operating agreement should still include a contingency plan for dividing expenses if the trust runs dry. This is especially important for waterfront homes that are expensive to insure or susceptible to erosion. 

5. Prepare for the likelihood that some heirs may want to cash out.

Parents often assume that their children will want to keep the home, according to Mandel. However, even if heirs initially agree to, they may change their minds later. Perhaps they grow tired of sharing a home with their cousins or a death in the family changes the equation, she said. For instance, Mandel worked with a ranch-owning family where the only sibling with working knowledge of the property passed away unexpectedly, which upended the living siblings’ plan to run the ranch. 
It’s important to plan for the likelihood that some or all of the heirs will want to cash out. Doyle suggests creating buyout provisions that allow heirs to buy their siblings’ LLC interest even if they don’t have the liquidity, such as taking out a promissory note. The assets in the trust can also be used to buy siblings’ interests in the LLC.
“What you’ve got to build into any plan is an understanding that people’s circumstances and situations can and will definitely change,” he said. “Maybe they’re going to have kids, or their job changes, or their health changes. Things change.”
This can be hard for parents to reconcile, but keeping heirs’ hands tied defeats the purpose of a vacation home, Griffith said.
“If your grandchildren don’t have any ties to this place, no one lives here, no one grew up here, nobody cares, then do you really care if they sell the place?” he said. “If somebody else who really does care about it gets to enjoy it, is that such a bad thing?” More

President Donald Trump threatened Friday to impose tariffs on furniture, adding to his levies on specific products and commodities.
Stocks for some furniture and home goods companies, including Wayfair, RH and Williams-Sonoma, tumbled after the market close, following Trump’s post.

A shopper looks at chairs for sale at an At Home store in Queens, New York City, U.S., July 15, 2025.
Kylie Cooper | Reuters

The Trump administration has launched an investigation into imported furniture, President Donald Trump said Friday, setting the stage for new tariffs on a wide range of products.
“Within the next 50 days, that Investigation will be completed, and Furniture coming from other Countries into the United States will be Tariffed at a Rate yet to be determined,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform. “This will bring the Furniture Business back to North Carolina, South Carolina, Michigan, and States all across the Union.”

Following Trump’s post, shares of top furniture and home goods companies, including Wayfair, RH and Williams-Sonoma, tumbled in after-hours trading.
Wayfair imports much of its furniture. RH, formerly Restoration Hardware and Williams-Sonoma have been working to diversify their supply chains.
New tariffs could drive up costs for many of these major furniture brands. But not for all of them.
Shares of La-Z-Boy, which has most of its manufacturing in the U.S., rose on the news of Trump’s tariff plans.
Trump has already put steep tariffs on cars, steel and aluminum and he has floated similar customs duties for imported copper, pharmaceuticals and semiconductors.

It was unclear Friday whether new, sectoral tariffs on furniture would be applied on top of country specific tariff rates.
The Trump administration has spent months holding bilateral negotiations with U.S. trade partners in an effort to reset the balance of global trade. Recent framework agreements with the European Union and China have helped to calm markets, but leave many longer-term issues unresolved.
Any new tariffs would come at a difficult moment for the U.S. furniture industry, which faces a range of challenges.
Companies like Wayfair have seen demand fall for more than a year on items like new couches and dining sets, a drop caused in part by a slower overall housing market as buyers wait for interest rates to come down.
With fewer new homes being bought, consumers have fewer reasons to buy new furniture.
Plus, with stubborn inflation, they have been more choosy on where they are spending their discretionary income. Restaurants, new clothes, trips and home decor have all taken a hit.
— CNBC’s Gabrielle Fonrouge contributed to this report. More

Canada announced Friday it was dropping most of its counter-tariffs of 25% on U.S. goods.
The tariffs on U.S. autos, steel and aluminum will remain in place for now.
The move comes as the U.S.-Mexico-Canada agreement is scheduled for a review in the next few months.

Canada removed many of its retaliatory tariffs on the U.S. on Friday, marking a significant step forward in the two countries’ relationship.
Canada in March imposed counter-tariffs of 25% on a long list of U.S. products that fall in line with the North American trade deal after the U.S. had announced 25% duties on steel and aluminum. Notably, Canada’s 25% tariffs on U.S. autos, steel and aluminum will remain in place for now, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said in a press conference Friday.

The change will go into effect on Sept. 1, Carney added, saying he believes Canada has the best trade deal out of all of the countries working with the U.S.
“As we work intensively with the United States, our focus is squarely on the strategic sectors,” Carney said.
A White House official told NBC News that Canada’s move was “long overdue.”
“We look forward to continuing our discussions with Canada on the Administration’s trade and national security concerns,” the official said.

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Friday’s announcement follows a phone call between Carney and President Donald Trump, the first known call between the two since failed talks before the Aug. 1 tariff deadline. A readout of the Thursday call from Carney’s office called the conversation “productive and wide-ranging,” with both leaders agreeing to reconvene soon.

Carney said Friday that Trump assured him that dropping retaliatory tariffs will kick-start negotiations between the two countries.
The move comes as the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, which Trump negotiated during his first term, is scheduled to undergo a review later this year.
Canada was swift to impose its counter-tariffs on the U.S. on CA$30 billion, or US$21.7 billion, worth of U.S. goods under then-Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. In July, Trump announced he would raise tariffs on Canada to 35% and said the rise of fentanyl and Canada’s unwillingness to work with the U.S. affected his decision.
A total of 43 pounds of the drug was seized at the northern border during 2024 with an additional 58 pounds having been confiscated there so far this year, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
At the time, Carney said in a post on social media site X that the country was committed to working alongside the U.S. to come to a deal.

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The domestic box office is expected to reach at least $3.75 billion for the summer season, according to data from Comscore.
Movie theater operators reported solid audience numbers and ticket sales during the second quarter, which included May and June box office figures.
But momentum from summer ticket sales is expected to stall until the November release of “Wicked: For Good.”

Movie stills from Disney’s “Lilo & Stitch” and “Fantastic Four” and Warner Bros. Discovery’s “Superman.”
Courtesy: Disney | 20th Century Studios | Marvel Studios | Warner Bros. Discovery

Superheroes, dinosaurs and a genetically altered alien dog helped propel the summer box office haul above 2024 levels, but that momentum is about to stall.
Heading into the final stretch of the summer season — which started the first weekend in May and wraps up on Labor Day — the domestic box office is expected to reach at least $3.75 billion, according to data from Comscore. That’s about a 2% uptick from the previous summer.

Hollywood had hoped the 2025 summer would be a return to form for the box office, reaching the $4 billion mark, which had become the standard prior to the pandemic. Ticket sales reached that figure in 2023, thanks to the powerhouse team up of Warner Bros.’ “Barbie” and Universal’s “Oppenheimer.” However, the the past two summers have borne the brunt of production shutdowns caused by the dual writers and actors strikes two years ago.
Last summer, Disney and Pixar’s “Inside Out 2” and Marvel’s “Deadpool & Wolverine” helped buoy the May-to-August season to $3.67 billion, much higher than box office analysts had predicted earlier in the year.

Summer box office tallies

2024 — $3.7 billion
2023 — $4 billion
2022 — $3.4 billion
2021 — $1.7 billion
2020 — $176.2 million
2019 — $4.3 billion
2018 — $4.4 billion
2017 — $3.8 billion
2016 — $4.4 billion
2015 — $4.4 billion
2014 — $4 billion
2013 — $4.7 billion*
2012 — $4.2 billion

* Record summer box office revenue
Source: Comscore

Hollywood had hoped that the combination of major franchise titles — a new entry from the “Jurassic World” series alongside reboots of Superman and the Fantastic Four — would be enough to fuel the 2025 summer stretch to the $4 billion mark. Yet, none of those films generated more than $350 million domestically.

In fact, the highest-grossing film of the summer has been Disney’s live-action remake of “Lilo & Stitch,” which has tallied $421 million domestically as of Sunday. The second-highest is “Superman,” which stands at $340 million.
In previous summers, top films like “Inside Out 2,” “Barbie” and “Top: Gun Maverick” each brought in at least $600 million in ticket sales.
“What started with a historic Memorial Day weekend gave way to a mix of underperformers and crowd-pleasing hits,” said Shawn Robbins, director of analytics at Fandango and founder of Box Office Theory. “The back half of the season rebounded with several blockbusters and sleeper hits, but we continue to see audiences are highly selective when a barrage of franchise movies is out there despite many of those films generating positive reviews. Some connect in a big way, while others simply don’t catch on.”
Still, movie theater operators reported solid audience numbers and ticket sales during the second quarter, which included May and June box office figures.
“As to the strengthening industrywide box office, we firmly believe that this was not a short-lived spike, but rather, the beginning of a sustained and powerful resurgence for our entire industry,” Adam Aron, CEO of AMC, said during an earnings call last week.

Similarly, Cinemark CEO Sean Gamble noted during the company’s earnings call earlier this month that the April release of “A Minecraft Movie,” which ran well into the summer months, alongside “a steady stream of highly compelling new releases week after week, ignited a surge of summer moviegoing momentum.”
But he also warned that, as is typical in the theatrical business, August and September at the box office tend to “de-throttle a little bit.”
That is certainly the case this year, as well, but it is likely to extend well into October as well. While “Tron: Ares” and “Mortal Kombat II” are expected to draw in audiences during that month, box office analysts don’t expect a major breakout hit until late November.
“The post-summer corridor is looking a bit bereft of standout blockbusters,” said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst at Comscore. “We’ll have to rely on the cumulative success of some low to mid-range performers along with what looks to be a really nice selection of awards caliber and indie films. That said, we may want to brace ourselves for a few fallow weeks at the box office.”
AMC’s Aron noted that the upcoming third-quarter box office will be “so-so given some seasonal, but not alarming softness,” but told investors to “hold onto your hats for the size of the box office in the fourth quarter.”
The turning point is expected to come Nov. 21 with the release of Universal’s “Wicked: For Good.” The highly anticipated sequel to last year’s hit “Wicked” is expected to open to over $100 million and steadily collect ticket sales through the rest of the year at the box office.
“Zootopia 2” arrives for the Thanksgiving holiday and is also expected to exceed $100 million during its opening frame.
“Avatar: Fire and Ash” will cap off the year and is expected to bolster the box office during the first few weeks of 2026.
“The final months of the year have potential to be nothing short of stellar,” Robbins said.
Disclosure: Comcast is the parent company of NBCUniversal, Fandango and CNBC. More

Consumer spending has largely stayed strong so far and the pinch from higher duties hasn’t been as severe as some companies had feared.
Scot Ciccarelli, a retail analyst for Truist, said retailers are raising prices “but not nearly to the degree that might have been expected in early April.”
Yet Walmart said it’s seen price sensivity with some lower-income shoppers and Crocs reduced orders for the back half of the year.

Customer with shopping cart in the snack aisle of a Walmart store in Florida City, Florida in the on August 5, 2025.
JC Milhet | AFP | Getty Images

As some of the biggest names in retail, including Walmart and Home Depot, delivered earnings results in recent weeks, they updated Wall Street on how they and their shoppers are responding to President Donald Trump’s wave of tariff increases.
The takeaway?

Tariff costs are rising for retailers, and they’ve had to get creative to avoid widespread price hikes.
Yet consumer spending has largely stayed strong so far — and the pinch from higher duties hasn’t been as severe as some companies had feared. Compared to the spring, retail executives struck a measured tone and said they don’t expect their costs, or customers’ prices, to jump dramatically.
Walmart had given one of the strongest warnings in May, as CFO John David Rainey said he expected some prices to rise during the summer. In an interview with CNBC on Thursday, however, Rainey said the nation’s biggest retailer has raised prices on some items, but in other parts of its stores has kept prices down or expanded discounts.
“There are certainly areas where we have fully absorbed the impact of higher tariff costs,” he said. “There are other areas where we’ve had to pass some of those costs along. But when you look across the basket of items, we’re certainly trying to keep prices as low as we can.”
Scot Ciccarelli, a retail analyst for Truist, said retailers are raising prices “but not nearly to the degree that might have been expected in early April” when Trump first announced his steep tariffs on dozens of countries.

“Most of the companies are kind of downplaying the impact of tariffs,” he said. “They’ve all talked about substantial mitigation efforts, whether that is diversifying sourcing, whether that is pushing price back to vendors.”
Here are three takeaways from a busy couple weeks of retail earnings.

Consumer spending is steady — with some exceptions

The drumbeat of steady, but selective, U.S. consumer spending continued this quarter.
At Walmart, the nation’s largest grocer by revenue, sales of private label items, which tend to cost less than national name brands, were roughly flat, Rainey told CNBC. When customers trade down to those cheaper brands or smaller packs of items, it can signal U.S. households feel strapped for cash.
“Everyone is looking to see if there are any creaks in the armor or anything that’s happening with the consumer, but it’s been very consistent,” Rainey told CNBC. “They continue to be very resilient.”
Walmart and Coach parent company Tapestry both raised their sales outlooks for the full year. Both companies said they saw healthy sales of discretionary items, such as clothing and handbags.
Sales of fashion items, including ladies’ apparel and shoes, accelerated at Walmart in the quarter, Rainey said. One of Coach’s handbags, the large Kisslock bag that costs $695, sold out within minutes of launching in July, Tapestry CEO Joanne Crevoiserat said last week on the company’s earnings call.
Yet some categories are still a tough sell. And lower-income shoppers have been more sensitive to price changes.
Walmart CEO Doug McMillon said Thursday that the effect of tariffs on spending “has been somewhat muted.” Still, he added some shoppers have noticed and responded when prices creep up.
“As we replenish inventory at post-tariff price levels, we’ve continued to see our costs increase each week, which we expect will continue into the third and fourth quarters,” he said. “Not surprisingly, we see more adjustments in middle- and lower-income households than we do with higher-income households and discretionary categories where item prices have gone up.”
Sales at Home Depot and Lowe’s improved as the quarter went on, with the strongest in July. Still, the companies weren’t ready to predict a turnaround for home improvement.
Lowe’s CEO Marvin Ellison attributed some of the recent pickup in demand to better weather and said “it’s too early for us to call that a trend.” Higher mortgage rates and borrowing costs have dinged homeowners’ willingness to tackle a major renovation or move to a new home, which tends to spur home projects.
Other brands had more dire warnings about spending. On the company’s earnings call, Crocs CEO Andrew Rees described the backdrop for the second half of the year as “concerning” and said its retail orders are weak.
He described Crocs’ customer as “super cautious.”
“They’re not purchasing. They’re not even going to the stores, and we see traffic down,” he said, adding that’s also true at its outlets, which draw more lower-income households.

Customers shop at a Home Depot store on August 19, 2025 in Chicago, Illinois.
Scott Olson | Getty Images

Retailers have blunted the effects of tariffs … so far

Retailers have jumped into action to try to minimize cost increases from tariffs or avoid them altogether.
Those tactics have included importing goods from a wider range of countries, getting items to the U.S. early and stocking up on high-frequency purchases or fresh merchandise that consumers are more likely to buy, even at higher prices, according to interviews of retail executives and earnings calls.
Yet as Walmart showed, retailers have been strategic about price increases — to not only avoid spooking customers, but also to dodge potential scrutiny from the White House. Trump criticized Walmart in May after the company warned it would have to raise prices.
Sharkninja, which makes a wide range of items including blenders and hairstyling tools, has “increased sell price on products, but done it very, very carefully,” CEO Mark Barrocas said in an interview. And in some cases, it had to roll back part of those price increases, he said.
The company has also reduced discounting and raised the price of new merchandise when it debuts. For example, Sharkninja initially planned to launch a new infrared skin care mask called CryoGlow at $299, but instead decided to price it at $349, he said.
For Walmart, Target and Tapestry-owned Coach, importing goods early and having merchandise in warehouses before tariffs took effect have helped them curb the hit from higher rates.
Home Depot Chief Financial Officer Richard McPhail told CNBC most of the imported products the company sold during the quarter landed ahead of tariffs. And Home Depot is taking more steps to blunt the effects: more than half of what the company sells comes from the U.S. and it aims to import no more than 10% from any single country by the end of the year.
Yet the tariff bill is still adding up. Walmart’s McMillion said he expects higher costs from duties to continue through the second half of the fiscal year. Other companies also provided specific estimates of how much the higher duties will cost them.
Even as Tapestry posted sales growth, its shares tumbled last week after it said costs from higher duties would total $160 million this upcoming fiscal year and ding profits.
While Trump’s tariff policy appears more settled than in the spring, tariffs on some countries could still rise.
Many of Trump’s tariffs on countries began in early August, but one of the key rates still hangs in the balance. He delayed higher tariffs on China for 90 days last week. Those had jumped as high as 145%, but are now at 30% as negotiations continue.
Target acknowledged the trade uncertainty with its own strategy. It gave a wider than usual range for its full-year earnings per share outlook.

Inside a Crocs store at Queens Center in New York.
Ryan Baker | CNBC

Strong brands, new moneymakers matter more than ever

Strong brand loyalty and lucrative new businesses have made it easier for some companies to weather the uncertainty.
As homeowners postpone larger projects, Home Depot and Lowe’s have bulked up their business among home professionals to attract steadier traffic and prepare for when demand picks up again. Along with reporting earnings this week, Lowe’s announced it’s buying Foundation Building Materials for $8.8 billion. It marked its second acquisition of a home professional-focused company in recent months.
Home Depot announced its own pro-focused deal earlier this summer and made the largest acquisition in its history when it bought SRS Distribution last year.
Walmart also has benefited from newer revenue streams, especially its advertising business and third-party marketplace. Global advertising grew 46% in the most recent quarter, including ad-enabled smart TV maker Vizio, which it acquired last year.
Its marketplace revenue grew by 17% year over year. That business includes sellers who get charged a commission and often pay for services, such as ads on Walmart’s site to promote their products or fulfillment services to have the big-box retailer store, pack and ship orders to customers.
Those “more diversified set of profit streams,” which have higher margins than selling a gallon of milk or a T-shirt, make Walmart’s earnings steadier even as the company faces profit pressures, Rainey said on the company’s earnings call.
“We are more than just a standard brick-and-mortar retail business,” he said on the call.
For some brands, customer demand is high enough to help offset tariffs or allow them to charge more.
Sandal maker Birkenstock, for instance, “saw no pushback or cancellations” after its tariff-related July 1 price increases, CEO Oliver Reichert said on the company’s earnings call.
Coach, which has driven up its average price of items over the past five years and reduced its level of markdowns, can better “absorb a lot of these input costs,” Coach CEO Todd Kahn told CNBC.
On the flip side, tariff costs have hit some brands harder, especially if they don’t have the new products customers seem to want or are skittish about what sales will look like later this year. High-performing companies with massive scale like Walmart often have leverage with vendors to pass on costs — but other businesses might not.
“If you’re a struggling brand, or you’re not really growing your business with a vendor, that vendor has less incentive to absorb incremental costs, whether it’s from tariffs or supply chain or whatever,” Truist’s Ciccarelli said.
Target said its profit margins in the quarter were hurt by the costs of cancelling orders. Crocs also said it is reducing orders for the back half of the year.
Crocs took another usual step: Rees said the company is taking back older inventory from retailers that sell its Heydude shoe brand and swapping it out with fresher styles. More

John Deere is positioning itself in what’s been a struggling broader agricultural sector, citing weaker demand and taking significant losses in sales.
The company laid off hundreds of workers in its latest round of layoffs last week.
Still, Deere and Wall Street analysts remain optimistic that the company is hitting a bottom this year and will turn around in the longer term.

Attendees view a John Deere 7R 270 row crop tractor at the Deere & Co. booth during the World Ag Expo at the International Agri-Center in Tulare, California on February 11, 2025.
Patrick T. Fallon | AFP | Getty Images

John Deere is facing a crossroads as the company continues to see weaker demand in the agricultural sector even while it has committed to investing millions in U.S. manufacturing and promised a brighter road ahead.
The agricultural machinery company warned on its fiscal third-quarter earnings call last week that it is seeing much softer demand, posting significant year-over-year decreases in net income and sales.

The company is working to position itself in the larger agricultural sector, which has seen growing challenges with rising costs, climate change impacts, labor shortages and more.
Farmers have also been dealing with lower prices on crops like corn and grain and have pared back their spending as a result. In turn, Deere’s target audience has pulled back on its willingness to buy new agricultural equipment.
Deere has also been hit by tariff costs, estimating that it could take a $600 million hit for the fiscal 2025 year. The company has already seen $300 million in tariff expenses year to date.
Just after reporting its earnings, the company confirmed to CNBC that it announced 238 layoffs across its Illinois and Iowa factories, adding to thousands who have been laid off over the past year. The company cited decreased demand and lower order volumes as the main factors behind the job reductions.
“As stated on our most recent earnings call, the struggling ag economy continues to impact orders for John Deere equipment,” Deere told CNBC in a statement. “This is a challenging time for many farmers, growers and producers, and directly impacts our business in the near term.”

The manufacturer employs more than 70,000 people globally.
Still, Deere has identified enough green shoots to point to a less-troubling future.
On its most recent earnings call, company executives emphasized the growth in demand in both Europe and South America after seeing weakness in North America. Despite macroeconomic headwinds, Deere’s president of its worldwide agriculture and turf division said the company remains confident in its future.
“We think there’s positive tail winds from both what we see in the trade deals, and we think there are positive tail winds from what we see in tax policy,” Cory Reed said on the call.
And in June, the company released a statement that “myth busted” any claims that Deere might need to shut down its U.S. manufacturing due to the fall in demand. Instead, the company said it was making a “bold move” to invest $20 billion into U.S. manufacturing over the next 10 years.
It follows a similar string of announcements from companies trying to shore up their “Made in the USA” bona fides since President Donald Trump took office. Before the election, Trump threatened Deere with 200% tariffs if it moved production to factories in Mexico.
“Over the next decade, we will continue to make significant investments in our core U.S. market,” CEO John May said in the statement in June. “This underscores our dedication to innovation and growth while staying cost-competitive in a global market.”

What Wall Street is saying

Despite the struggles in the broader agricultural sector, Wall Street analysts on the whole remain optimistic about Deere’s road ahead.
Oppenheimer analyst Kristen Owen wrote last week that she remains bullish on Deere and expects increased confidence into 2026, telling CNBC that she believes the company is taking an “appropriately cautiously optimistic outlook.”
Even Truist analyst Jamie Cook, who lowered his target after Deere’s earnings last week and emphasized an uncertain outlook for 2026, said he still believes this year marks a bottoming for the company’s earnings per share.
The company’s stock has seen a nearly 30% increase over the one-year period.

Stock chart icon

Deere stock

Looking at Deere’s history and the hit that the farming industry has taken over the past few years, D.A. Davidson analyst Michael Shlisky told CNBC he can’t imagine the company going much lower from here.
“The way I’d say it is 2025 could be the worst, the lowest number of tractor sales in the history of modern agriculture,” he said, with the potential for the trend to swing upward becoming imminent.
While the optimism might not be directly translating to sales today, Shlisky said the “hints” of progress are enough to make him excited about the company’s future, including the growth in Europe and South America.
“When parts of the world are doing better, the parts that aren’t doing as well are likely to follow,” Shlisky said.
While not commenting directly on the latest round of layoffs, Shlisky said he doesn’t think investors would be surprised to see the necessary cost-cutting measures at this point in the company’s trajectory.
Similarly, Morgan Stanley analysts wrote in a note that while demand may be decreasing, they stand behind a thesis that Deere earnings have bottomed and that the company remains an “attractive opportunity longer term.”
Analyst Angel Castillo told CNBC that Deere and the agricultural sector at large are cyclical, so while the short-term remains uncertain, the long-term outlook for the company is likely to bounce back, noting that precision agriculture in particular is likely to take off.
“This is one of the unique areas where we think even if there’s more challenges next year, as we kind of expect, the earnings downside risk is much more de-risked or already captured by expectation,” Castillo said.
With its latest cost-cutting measures, Deere is saving itself by not overproducing or creating a supply chain issue, Castillo added.
“The reality today is that we’re still in an uncertain environment, and I think they’re managing in a disciplined, rational way to try to make sure not to create a worse environment,” he said.

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Gunnar Wiedenfels is the chief financial officer of Warner Bros. Discovery and the CEO-elect of Discovery Global, one half of the soon-to-be-split company.
His financial background and recent initiatives at WBD have earned Wiedenfels a reputation as a shrewd decision-maker focused on the numbers.
Colleagues from across the Warner Bros. Discovery business said Wiedenfels has also been integral to investment, growth and preparing the business to be split into two viable companies.
Discussions have already started about growth strategies for Discovery Global’s streaming and the international business, among other units.

Warner Bros. Discovery Chief Financial Officer Gunnar Wiedenfels walks to a session at the Allen & Company Sun Valley Conference on July 9, 2025 in Sun Valley, Idaho.
Kevin Dietsch | Getty Images

By day, Gunnar Wiedenfels is the chief financial officer of Warner Bros. Discovery and the CEO-elect of Discovery Global, one half of the soon-to-be-split company.
In his off hours, Wiedenfels is a beekeeper.

The media executive picked up apiculture with his children as a way to soften their fears about insects. He called it “an unforgettable experience” and a great life lesson. It’s also provided holiday gifts of honey for his colleagues.
“Although it has been frustrating at times to just keep these hives surviving,” Wiedenfels told CNBC in an interview, “one of the greatest lessons with bees is you have to keep calm. Never try inspecting your hives when stressed or in a rush. It won’t end well. The same hive, when approached 15 minutes later in peace, may be the most welcome.”
Wiedenfels said the same wisdom applies to his day job and his next step.
In June, Warner Bros. Discovery announced its intention to split into two public companies, effectively reversing the merger of WarnerMedia and Discovery three years ago. Wiedenfels will take the helm of Discovery Global, the company that will house WBD’s TV networks including CNN, HGTV and TNT.
The streaming and studio assets of Warner Bros. Discovery, to be renamed Warner Bros., will be run by current CEO David Zaslav. Both companies will trade publicly by mid-2026, according to corporate filings.

The separation puts Wiedenfels in the CEO seat for the first time to lead a company with one of the largest portfolios of cable networks in the U.S. His financial background and recent initiatives at WBD have earned Wiedenfels a reputation as a shrewd decision-maker focused on the numbers.
“I think with Gunnar, he’s the cost-cutting guy. He’s the hard-nosed accountant, cost-focused, cost-cutter,” said John Hodulik, an analyst at UBS. “And that’s what this business is going to need. His job is to stay ahead of the declines on the cost side, and frankly, he’s perfect for it.”

Gunnar Wiedenfels became a beekeeper as part of a hobby with his children. He gave out the honey as holiday gifts to colleagues.
Courtesy: Gunnar Wiedenfels

After the 2022 merger of WarnerMedia and Discovery, Wiedenfels had to contend with a debt load that initially totaled $56 billion. It’s since been cut down to roughly $35 billion.
“We’ve come a very long way over these 3½ years,” Wiedenfels said.
Colleagues from across the Warner Bros. Discovery business said in a series of interviews that Wiedenfels has done more than cut budgets, however. He’s also been integral to investment, growth and preparing the business to be split into two viable companies.
He takes the helm at a pivotal moment for media, as yearslong declines in pay TV customers show signs of stabilization and a rebalancing of priorities brings a new crop of decision-makers like Wiedenfels to the fore.
Turning Discovery Global into an investor darling won’t be easy. Warner Bros. Discovery shares have fallen more than 50% since the April 2022 merger, largely because shareholders viewed cable networks as declining assets that weighed down the company’s growth prospects.
Most of WBD’s remaining debt will be transferred to Discovery Global, which could put the company in a difficult position to simultaneously demonstrate growth and pay off debt. Wiedenfels said he believes both can be done, noting the networks are still a cash cow and there are no near-term debt maturities, leaving room to do deals.
Still, the onus is on Wiedenfels to give investors a reason to believe in Discovery Global’s narrative.
He doesn’t expect the business to return to its glory days. Streaming services have finally begun to reach profitability and while traditional pay TV networks are still profitable, that number is shrinking.
“I’m not trying to position it as a growth company,” Wiedenfels said. “We know the secular trends, but these are enormous assets we can build on and build around.”
He’ll also have to manage a wearied group of employees, many of whom have lived through several value-draining mergers, including AOL’s 2000 acquisition of Time Warner (still the largest U.S. deal ever at $165 billion and occasionally called the worst deal of all time), AT&T’s 2018 acquisition of Time Warner ($85.4 billion, and also in the running for worst deal ever) and WarnerMedia’s 2022 merger with Discovery.
Much of the necessary cost-cutting at WBD has taken place since the merger, according to a person close to the company, and discussions have already started about growth strategies for Discovery Global’s streaming and the international business, among other units.

Fighting for the job

Zaslav, who spoke to CNBC in an interview, championed Wiedenfels for the role of CEO for Discovery Global, saying he was struck by how quickly the finance chief learned all aspects of the Warner Bros. Discovery business.
“There’s only one meeting with Gunnar,” said Zaslav. “He’ll ask all the questions and put it out on the table. He’s a very real guy. He’s very direct, and he’s extremely likable.”
That likability should help appease an employee base which has become shell-shocked with cuts and layoffs over decades of mergers.

David Zaslav, CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery, attends the annual Allen and Co. Sun Valley Media and Technology Conference at the Sun Valley Resort in Sun Valley, Idaho, on July 8, 2025.
David A. Grogan | CNBC

Having employees’ backs will be pivotal in positioning Discovery Global as a sustainable new media company.
“There’s almost no business that I’ve been involved in that we’ve gotten right when we launched and it worked. You have to fight to get it right,” said Zaslav. “[Wiedenfels is] a fighter. I mean, he’s literally a fighter. He gets up early in the morning and he takes boxing classes.”
Wiedenfels and his family came to the U.S. in 2017 when he was offered the CFO role at Discovery. Before that, he had been CFO at German entertainment company ProSiebenSat.1 Media SE since 2015 and was considered heir apparent to the CEO.
“He was really an unusual CFO, in a way, because he could equally do a tough restructuring or building of a new business. He could also do deals,” said Thomas Ebeling, the former CEO of ProSiebenSat.1 Media SE. “His leadership style was always an energetic one and positive.”
While at the German company, Wiedenfels was involved in the expansion into the digital space and identifying synergies between TV, advertising and digital, said Ebeling. In two or three years, Wiedenfels was instrumental in the company inking 24 deals, Ebeling added.
“I think most of them worked out well,” Ebeling said.
While he has continued on the deal-making path at WBD, Wiedenfels’ mandate also expanded as he dug into various parts of the media business.

Doing the math

The early days after the Warner Bros. Discovery merger were marked by a series of cost-cutting measures as Zaslav and his executives set out on a mission to find at least $3.5 billion in synergies.
Many of those money-saving decisions grabbed headlines.
Weeks into the start of the new company, CNN’s then newly launched streaming platform, CNN+, was shut down in a jarring reversal of what had been a buzzy expansion into direct-to-consumer.
Star-studded HBO shows like “Westworld” were canceled, and straight-to-streaming movies like DC Comics’ “Batgirl” were scrapped. Content was pulled from its flagship streaming platform, HBO Max, and some of HBO’s marquee shows like, “Sex and the City,” were licensed out for the first time to Netflix.
WBD has also cut thousands of jobs in the span of three years. As of December, the company had more than 35,000 employees.
Zaslav said much of this cost-cutting followed the data. Wiedenfels built a team focused on the analytics of WBD’s content, Zaslav said. For every piece of content, questions about its value on streaming or international platforms, as well as potential viewership and demand, were front and center.
“It gave us the conviction to say we’re not going to do [movies direct-to-streaming] anymore; we’re going to theater. It was unpopular but it was demonstrable,” said Zaslav.
Then last year, TNT Sports walked away from NBA media rights, ceding ground in live sports to NBCUniversal, Disney and Amazon.
TNT Sports Chairman and CEO Luis Silberwasser told CNBC that WBD was smart to drop NBA media rights, which it had been paying $1.4 billion annually for.
“We held the line on the NBA and said there’s going to be a point where it’s not worth it and it’s going to put tremendous risk on the business,” said Silberwasser in an interview.

TNT Sports at Roland Garros, the French Open.
Courtesy: Warner Bros. Discovery

Silberwasser and Zaslav both cited other live sports rights that the company has picked up.
“He’s spent a lot of time over the last three years really getting into the trenches,” said Silberwasser. “He’s the person that greenlit all of the investments that we made in Roland-Garros, NASCAR, among others, so he has shown he’s willing to spend, too.”
The company also renegotiated distribution deals with six major pay TV providers and kept rates steady despite the loss of NBA rights, a key move for the future Discovery Global, Zaslav said.

Adding growth

Wiedenfels’ analysis didn’t just identify areas to pull back, according to his colleagues. It also highlighted areas for further investment.
He identified Warner Bros.’ animation unit as a potential source of growth, provided it received more investment. And soon after, its team was resurrected, industry veteran Bill Damaschke was hired and content was in development.
Similarly, the company focused on rebuilding its film studio — a bright spot in WBD’s August earnings report.

The upcoming “Cat in the Hat” movie from Warner Bros. Discovery.
Courtesy: Warner Bros. Discovery

WBD also invested more heavily in HBO Max, particularly to update its technology and push international expansion. Under Wiedenfels, the company hired more engineers to improve HBO Max’s algorithm and search engine and to help it support live content, Zaslav said. After being “stuck” at roughly 95 million subscribers for about two years, launching the global streaming platform “paid off,” he added.
The company reported earlier in August it had nearly 126 million streaming subscribers and was on track to meet its goal of more than 150 million by the end of 2026.
Though these divisions will remain with Warner Bros. after the split, they will owe at least some of its recent trajectory to Wiedenfels.
CNN Chairman and CEO Mark Thompson said in an interview that Wiedenfels is “very much committed to continuing the investment in CNN.” He and Wiedenfels have recently been on a tour of the network’s various bureaus in preparation for the launch of a reimagined CNN streaming platform this fall.
“I tease him about the reputation for cost-cutting,” Thompson said. “If I’m being fair to him, however, in CNN’s case he’s more than met our ask on investments. In fact, he’s asked whether we need any more.”
Wiedenfels said the company would be investing in building out CNN’s future streaming and digital products, calling it “a pretty significant financial commitment in an industry with declining linear secular trends.”
The company is on track to invest at least $100 million in the network so far, with plans for further investment next year.

Looking ahead

A ‘Shark Week’ blimp flies over the San Diego Convention Center on July 23, 2022.
Aaronp/bauer-griffin | Gc Images | Getty Images

Although Wiedenfels is still very much the CFO of Warner Bros. Discovery, he’s already started working on his next role as CEO.
In July, Wiedenfels said, he held a workshop with the future leaders of Discovery Global, many of whom are internal hires. The meeting lasted five hours, with one 10-minute break, and the discussion was solely around what comes after the split.
“It could have gone on for another five hours because there’s so much to discuss and so much excitement to get started and hammer out all these key questions,” said Wiedenfels.
Meanwhile, on WBD’s recent earnings call, Wiedenfels plugged future strategies for Discovery Global, including plans for a streaming service for TNT Sports.
One focus after the split will be reinvesting in the company’s preexisting streaming service, Discovery+, which sat on the sidelines as the focus shifted to HBO Max.
The capital needed for that and other initiatives will be derived from the future Discovery Global business, carefully set up by Wiedenfels and other top executives.
Although Discovery Global will take on much of the remaining debt from WBD’s balance sheet, which investors expect to stand at about $30 billion by the end of the fiscal year, the networks still produce enough cash to make investment possible.
In addition, Discovery Global will retain a 20% stake in Warner Bros., the separated streaming and movie studio entity, which Wiedenfels said will “wash billions of fresh capital” into Discovery Global.
Wiedenfels also told CNBC he believes Discovery Global will have the ability to make strategic moves, including deals and acquiring sports rights.
“If I look at my career so far, I’ve always had a very broad interpretation of the CFO role. I’ve always had certain operating or strategic functions under me,” said Wiedenfels. “I’ve always taken an approach to look beyond the numbers and develop a deep understanding of the business and drivers behind it.”
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Stellantis unveiled a newly designed Jeep Cherokee on Thursday.
The new model marks the iconic brand’s return after being discontinued in 2023.
Jeep has been facing a yearslong streak of slumping sales.

The 2026 Jeep Cherokee.

Jeep is rolling out a freshly designed model after six consecutive years of annual sales declines.
The Stellantis automaker unveiled a new Jeep Cherokee on Thursday, the latest move to try to jump-start sales. It’s the first Jeep hybrid system, and the first for Stellantis in North America.

The 2026 Jeep Cherokee redesign aims to evoke the iconic Cherokee SUV brand, which has dotted the company’s history for decades. Jeep had previously discontinued the model in 2023 under Stellantis’ former CEO Carlos Tavares as part of various cost-cutting measures.
Thursday’s model marks the debut of Stellantis’ new 1.6-liter turbo-four hybrid powertrain, with more than 500 miles to a tank of fuel. The car will boast a “technology-filled interior,” according to the company, including Stellantis’ new Connect One services package.
The new model, which the company said is longer, taller and wider than the previous Cherokee, also maximizes its space with 30% more cargo capacity.
“The 2026 Jeep Cherokee is an incredibly capable and competitive midsize SUV that’s ready to reclaim ourterritory in North America’s largest vehicle segment,” Jeep CEO Bob Broderdorf said in a statement.
The entry-level 2026 car starts at $36,995, including a $1,995 destination charge. The cars will arrive at dealerships toward the end of this year and the beginning of next year, with production taking place at Stellantis’ Mexico plant.

The 2026 Jeep Cherokee Overland.
Stellantis

The announcement comes as Jeep tries to reinvigorate its sales in what has been a yearslong slump for the brand.
Amid a six-year sales decline for Jeep, Stellantis is also facing headwinds from President Donald Trump’s tariffs, estimating its full-year impact for the company will reach 1.5 billion euros, or $1.74 billion. Stellantis CEO Antonio Filosa, who took over the top job at the automaker earlier this summer, said on a July call with analysts that the company has been working with the Trump administration.
Filosa, who was previously the CEO for Jeep, has long aimed to recover Jeep’s market share through a revitalization of the Cherokee brand.
Stellantis touted a gradual improvement over the coming months in its first-half earnings in July.
“My first weeks as CEO have reconfirmed my strong conviction that we will fix what’s wrong in Stellantis by capitalizing on everything that’s right in Stellantis — starting from the strength, energy and ideas of our people, combined with the great new products we are now bringing to market,” Filosa said in a July statement.

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