What are your thoughts on inheritances?

[Asher]

Inheritance - good.
Multiple inheritance - bad.

You're welcome.

[Tuberski]

I was nicknamed Canadian Psychopath recently.

It wasn't recently...

ACK!

[Guynemer]

I do not expect any inheritance, nor do I expect to leave one.

If you have the means and desire to do it, kudos. I think there is something to be said for letting a kid create their own life, with all of its attending struggles; but making sure, say, they get through whatever schooling they want without massive debt, and ensuring they have a place to live... that seems more than reasonable.

[Spaced Cowboy]

Go between, just enough to get him a good, good start, but he has to find his own way.

[Patroklos]

I would be curious at what age most people get the average inheritance. I realize grandparents often leave things to their grand kids but all my personal (ie people I know, not me) experianced with them were parents to children all of which were in their forties at least. I think that makes a big difference as far as the fears of standing development expressed here, I imagine trust fund babies as in Paris Hiltons are rather rare even for the wealthy.

EDIT: I take that back, I know one women whose rich father died in her early teens and the money was split between the second wife and the three kids, held in trust for the kids. I couldn't see telling children in that situation that the means to the life their father had built for them would now be confiscated for reasons.

[Berzerker]

Gimme, gimme, gimme.

hehehe...still got me chuckling

[Dinner]

My thoughts? Give them enough that they can do anything but don't give them so much they can do nothing. Pay for a great education, make sure they get an advanced degree, and maybe (just maybe if they earn it) help them get capital to start a business but the rest should be on them. Ideally they should have to work and earn money growing up so they learn responsibility and how the real world works instead of having everything always just given to them. Warren Buffet got it right when he paid for his grand-daughter to go to the university in Paris that she wanted to go to and then when she complained to him that getting around the city was hard (hinting that her billionaire grand-daddy should buy her a car and pay all the expenses) he bought her a bus pass.

A little bit of struggle and learning about how real people live will help make them much better and much more grounded human beings.

[Uncle Sparky]

I intended to die penniless; last year the Canadian government cancelled the penny....

[Alexander's Horse]

The best way to look at your "stuff" is you are just a steward. Do what you want.

My father in law just died. All that was left was a bag of bones, which the family threw in the river near their home. Even his coffin was donated to be used by poor people. My wife took nothing from the inheritance but was happy to have time with him before he died.

[molly bloom]

Avoid Huntingdon's Chorea, syphilis and membership of the Bullingdon.