The Shame and Relief of Receiving an Inheritance
The largest lump sum of money many of us will ever receive.
A friend of mine told his economically underperforming son who was living in his guest bedroom, “I did not raise you to be a waiter.”
“I’ve never worked in a restaurant,” the son said.
“Not that kind of waiter,” my friend said, “The kind who waits for his parents to die.”
Early in my elder-law practice, a legal niche I picked hoping that it would be quiet and non-litigious, I complained to a local judge about the high level of discord and animosity I had to deal with when administering estates. He gave me his best patronizing smile and explained that an inheritance is the largest tax-free lump-sum of money most people will ever see. For many, it is life changing. I was naïve to the point of blindness to have not foreseen that people would be willing to go to great lengths to protect or get such a windfall.
On a lot of days, my legal assistant and I quietly processed the paperwork required for transferring wealth from the Greatest Generation to the Baby Boomers. Some heirs treated the transfer as another mundane event in their family story — a bureaucratic annoyance to be done with and forgotten. Other’s were so eager to get the money, or so fearful of losing it…
