I personally would like to know the financial standing of my mom (I actually asked her a while back so I knew how her finances were...)
In my case no inheritance of any consequence (I knew that much), but looking at her numbers, I may have to cover her cost some (probably very small) if she needed a long term care for a long period of time. I am not as worried about her now, as when I didn't know, for sure. Knowing her financial status was very very important to me since my other sibling all of a sudden decided to cut all ties with her.
Even if she told me she had tons of money, I would have probably asked her the similar set of questions anyway (her sense of money has always been a bit different from mine, so I probably would have wanted to make sure that she would be OK till the end of her life), but we are pretty close and open, so I could easily ask her personal questions.
I personally wouldn't count on any money other people own (parents or otherwise) that they said they would leave to me. Things happen (accidents, totally unforseen uninsurable expensive surgeries, breakups, etc, etc), so if you are just wanting to know how much inheritance you are entitled to, I don't think I would ask. Asking a money question for my own selfish reasons (like "oh maybe I won't have to save for my second house after all" or "oh maybe I could retire 10 years earlier than I've been planning"), to me, would be tacky. BUT! If my mom did say she had tons of money to leave to me, we are close enough that I could say to her, "hey, tell me how much you got so I can start planning how to spend it. wait! maybe you should just give it to me now - you wouldn't need all that for yourself would you? "
tmm