Inheritance of Wealth

TOPIC : In some countries, inheritance of father’s property is not legally entitled to the children. Should inheritance of parent’s wealth be a legal right or should bequeathing wealth be at parent’s discretion?

      

     Wealth of an individual is the summation of all his assets he gathers all through his life. While some countries have made inheritance a legal right, the others have shunned the idea and the children in such countries are deprived the legal right of inheriting their parents wealth. The question of whether which is the right path to take, still remains open for debate.

       Exploring the various aspects, we first look into the pros and cons of why the law of non-inheritance of parent’s wealth stands through. The government is aiming at equal distribution of wealth, hence it created the law that children are not allowed to inherit their parent’s wealth. They aim at providing equal opportunities to all citizens without giving any undue advantage to any one particular class of people (here, the rich class). This creates a competitive and an open environment of learning and experimentation for the youth of the country, as they do not rely on their parent’s wealth to support themselves. The youth get a chance to learn the important life lessons through struggle and failures and instead of becoming lethargic and spoilt, they are inspired to work hard towards achieving a standard of living for themselves.

        Even though there are so many advantages of making inheritance of property illegal, why do the other countries choose to legalize inheritance. It is better if this decision is left in the hands of an individual who has worked hard to achieve his wealth. The freedom to choose is one of the basic rights, and taking the correct decisions with your hard-earned money is the freedom that the government should provide to each one of its citizens. When the people choose to keep their traditional home and business, they remain assured that their wealth is in the right hands and it will be used for the right purposes. They remain assured that their hard-earned money is used for better development of their future generations. Also with the low investment returns I todays markets, it becomes even more important to secure the future of your coming generations. If the parents feel their children lack the requisite skill, knowledge, experience, judgment or work ethics to manage their business and inheritance, the decision should remain in their hands to take the final decision.

        I firmly believe, that the parents should have the freedom to choose where they wish to invest  their hard-earned money and not be forced to give it up for legal reasons. If they feel right, they may donate a part of their money to charity and leave the remaining to their children. This ensures a bright future of the next generation and also makes sure the next generation is not spoilt, and the equality of wealth is maintained.