Not thinking so much about our assets and pass down to heirs but what about anecdotal tales of inheritances observed and perhaps experienced with friends, colleagues, classmates and family members (heirs). In the aggregate I can think of many instances where it was neutral to negative and few instances where it was productive and entirely positive. I think of the following cases off the top of my head:
- Positive - dentist handed off practice to his son who ran a successful practice to this day
- Positive - relatives who inherited and sunk it into a down payment resulting in domiciling and gaining equity
- Positive - those who spent it on higher education and emerged with little or no student loan debt as a result
- Positive - saved the majority of assets, invested in equities and fixed income securities
- Neutral - paid off debts, did not squander on lifestyle upgrades, saved a significant portion
- Neutral - BTD on some but not all, saved the rest, respected legacy savings
- Negative - immediately quit job (not retired), squandered money, treated windfall as a lottery winning
- Negative - upgraded lifestyle, treated windfall as a paycheck bonus
I know of many instances where heirs were simply waiting for someone to die in order to secure their entitled paycheck. I know of many instances where heirs fought with each other to get their "fair share" and where lawyers took a significant cut, in a few instances the lawyers got everything. I know for a fact where heirs have been demotivated from going out and working hard, taking chances and being driven to be successful. The looming inheritance has demotivated them where they become trust fund babies and really squander any talent potential they may possess.
It is such a tragedy when I see and know someone's parents work so hard to provide a financial legacy for their children only to see their dysfunctional children fighting over the prize after Mom or Dad dies. A classmate from college is in that situation now, father died 5 years ago intestate and the children have been fighting ever since. The estate was over 5M when he died and lawyers have sucked off more than half so far and they are not going to quit until they get the whole thing. These kids all hate each other so much now that it can never end amicably. They already sold one house and the entire proceeds went to pay legal bills which is unbelievable. The family court judge is a lawyer so it is obvious who she is going to favor in this matter.
I knew both parents and they are both turning over in their graves now, screaming at their children. The father would "jokingly" threaten to give the entire estate to the local humane society because he know they did not get along. Why he died intestate is beyond belief, I guess he was holding out to see what to do and by that time it was too late.
I'm beginning to think we should
give the vast majority of our assets to something we hold dear and leave comfortable but token amounts to our heirs.