Inheritance issues with second marriages

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Tom in Ohio
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Inheritance issues with second marriages

Post by Tom in Ohio »

Is it ethical to favor the blood heirs of the primary earner in a second marriage? Keep the discussion simple and say this marriage has produced no children but both spouses each have two children with a former mate. One spouse came to the relationship with significant assets and has produced 80% of the income and 95% of the accumulated wealth while the other had no assets and has earned 20% of the income. Should heirs of the major earner be left the majority of the estate? Should the decision consider the closeness or distance of the relationships between parent and child? Should a non-communicative child be given less?
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Re: Inheritance issues with second marriages

Post by Belindi »

I'd favour the heirs from the first marriage where the mother provided a lot more for the family finances. But not so much that the other heirs are in poverty.

however the material contribution of any family member is of less consideration than the following : the family is a unit in which each member's status is achieved by their contribution of time, duration, commitment, caring, responsibility, and material goods. The status is determined by the history and duration of the attachments even more than by the material contributions.

A child who has decided not to communicate with her family has possibly made her choice to be a fringe member of the family.

If the moneys involved were very small and not such as to make a substantial difference to any of the heirs, say personal mementos, I'd favour the heirs from the earlier marriage as having a special claim, based upon their being family members for longer.

-- Updated May 27th, 2017, 1:00 pm to add the following --

I just realised that all the children involved are step children of the major earner. This makes no difference to my decision that there are more important inputs into a family's wellbeing than money or other possessions.

If those other inputs into the family's wellbeing are equal among all stepchildren and both mothers then assets should be equally distributed. The exception to this may be that one of the heirs has special needs perhaps due to accident or illness.
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Tom in Ohio
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Re: Inheritance issues with second marriages

Post by Tom in Ohio »

Italy and Puerto Rico are two places where real estate is inherited along blood lines and there are probably many others. It means when a spouse dies the blood children of the deceased inherit his/her interest in the real property. It seems to me that logic could be applied via a will to other assets as well, with, as a starting point, shares divided among children commensurate with the amount of wealth created by the individual spouses. Other factors could then be considered, like the involvement in and contribution to the well-being of the parents by the various children and the intangible value of the spouse who supports the wealth-builder. It seems unfair to simply divide the estate blindly 4 ways among the children in this situation.
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LuckyR
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Re: Inheritance issues with second marriages

Post by LuckyR »

Tom in Ohio wrote:Is it ethical to favor the blood heirs of the primary earner in a second marriage? Keep the discussion simple and say this marriage has produced no children but both spouses each have two children with a former mate. One spouse came to the relationship with significant assets and has produced 80% of the income and 95% of the accumulated wealth while the other had no assets and has earned 20% of the income. Should heirs of the major earner be left the majority of the estate? Should the decision consider the closeness or distance of the relationships between parent and child? Should a non-communicative child be given less?
A couple of things: usually when a spouse dies the other spouse gets essentially all of the assets. Thus the children inherit when the second parent passes. In your scenario the parents should choose to give their own children a small inheritance if their parent dies first (assuming that they will definitely inherit later if their parent dies second). Since the assets are both parent's (assuming that there is not a prenuptial agreement), the children would inherit equally.

Most would include various factors in determining the amount of the inheritance.
"As usual... it depends."
Belindi
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Re: Inheritance issues with second marriages

Post by Belindi »

Thanks Lucky. Useful to know.
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Re: Inheritance issues with second marriages

Post by -1- »

In Hungary if you get divorced, half your income goes to your ex spouse (if you espouse him or her).

That means if you get married a second time, and get divorced, then no matter how much you earn, your entire income goes to your first (half if your income) and second (other half of income) espoused ex spouse. This means you get two chances, after which no matter what you do, you starve to death or get eaten by lions.
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Prothero
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Re: Inheritance issues with second marriages

Post by Prothero »

In the U.S, approximately half of all first marriages end in divorce. Thus there are many second marriages and lots of yours, mine, and ours children. Ideally of course all the children are loved, respected and treated equally but we do not live in an ideal world, and the possibilities are endless. If you get an inheritance from your parents, you are lucky, but I do not think children should feel they are entitled to inherit money from parents. Nor do I think other people get to tell others what they should do with their money. So those without financial assets and those without children from different marriages may have ideas about what should be done, but as with many such situations, the devil is in the details and the decision is (it would seem to me) the responsibility of the parents. Prenuptials, trusts, lawyers and others may assist but I don't see there is a single ethical position which is correct and covers all situations.
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Re: Inheritance issues with second marriages

Post by Belindi »

Prothero, that is good, but the initial question, if it could be answered can help parents to decide what is the right thing to do about helping their children. Helping their children can occur before the parent dies or after their death. Although as you imply it's wrong to attempt to legislate on parents' post mortem duties with regard to funding children , parents do sometimes want ethical guidance.
Prothero
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Re: Inheritance issues with second marriages

Post by Prothero »

Belindi wrote:Prothero, that is good, but the initial question, if it could be answered can help parents to decide what is the right thing to do about helping their children. Helping their children can occur before the parent dies or after their death. Although as you imply it's wrong to attempt to legislate on parents' post mortem duties with regard to funding children , parents do sometimes want ethical guidance.
Well part of the reason I know it is complicated is because I have five children from two marriages and I have significant assets. As it turns out there is a trust HEW (Health, Education and Welfare) from which they (and the grandchildren) can all benefit depending on circumstances and needs but no one (they all have a college education) will get a windfall. The possibilities though as I indicated are quite individual and I don't feel one could possibly cover them all in a forum. Ideally everyone is helped according to need and circumstance but when it comes to money one person's sense of fair is often not the other persons.
Belindi
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Re: Inheritance issues with second marriages

Post by Belindi »

Prothero wrote:
Well part of the reason I know it is complicated is because I have five children from two marriages and I have significant assets. As it turns out there is a trust HEW (Health, Education and Welfare) from which they (and the grandchildren) can all benefit depending on circumstances and needs but no one (they all have a college education) will get a windfall. The possibilities though as I indicated are quite individual and I don't feel one could possibly cover them all in a forum. Ideally everyone is helped according to need and circumstance but when it comes to money one person's sense of fair is often not the other persons.
To each according to their need is fair and compassionate. To each according to their need works well, says this socialist, in a nation or tribe. When the funds are small, and one child has great need so that to provide for him would swallow all the fund we can see that compassion is limited by fairness. This is a problem for the British National Health Service actually.
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