Is leaving all your inheritance to your children unethical?

[brasty]

I have been reading this article which argues that if you are leaving an inheritance to your children, that you should also leave some money to charities who help disadvantaged people, in recognition that not everyone inherits. It argues not to do that is unethical.
I think I agree, unless the inheritance is a very small amount - under £5k.

www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2017/12/ethics-inheritance-nussbaum-levmore/547934/

This is totally ridiculous. If I work hard and do not squander all my money away, why should I not leave some to my kids. It is my money and mine to spend as I please.

I think all inheritance should be abolished
Do you propose all cash is burnt in a Viking style funeral pyre? Or given to the state? What about inheriting property of valuables? Sell them or smash them all with a bog hammer??

I think it would be nice for people to leave mpnwy to charities in their will but it can't be obligatory in the same way it would be nice of those who could afford it gave to charity in their lifetime but you can't force someone to do so

I'd leave every single penny to my DC.

There's not a single charity that would get any of my money if I died.

Maybe if you're super rich it's a different story but if you're an ordinary person, life is hard enough, I'd want my DC to have as much as possible.

My husband and I plan to give a lot to charity when we die anyway, specifically a fairly small conservation charity with low overheads that do amazing work.

It should be 100% our choice though whether to give to charity at all and if so, which one.

We don't have inherited wealth, either of us. He makes good money and is entirely a self made man. He spent part of his childhood in a Council house. I make comfortably above average money and therefore will potentially also have something to leave, again though, self made, my job is bloody stressful, I work hard for my money!

Nobody has any more right to tell me what I must do with my hard earned cash after when I die than they do while I'm still alive, as far as I'm concerned...

All those “leaving money to dc”

Have you actually made a will to that end?

If you are married with no will it automatically goes to the surving spouse, who can then leave it to whoever he or she wants.

It is unethical but completely understandable for people to want to hand all of their wealth to their children.
It would be better to tax inherited wealth and close the loop holes on inheritance tax than to legislate against people bequeathing their money as they see fit

If you expect to be leaving millions to your children, then yes, there is a case for that, but most of us don't even expect to inherit as much as the deposit on a house, and even then, many of us won't lose our parents until we ourselves are in our sixties.

Anyway, large estates attract inheritance tax, which in theory goes to the government to provide - among other things - healthcare, social welfare and social housing.

You have to have a large inheritance before you pay inheritance tax. I am in my mid fifties and know a number of people who have inherited. They all used it to stop working or go part time or buy a much nicer house. Don't pretend inheritance can't change lives.

Sorry but this is baloney.

Some mad woman actually did sell their house to donate the money to Kids Company.

I work in this area. It's the childfree that leave money to charity. Rarely anyone with kids. Even the super rich don't - and if they do it's peanuts.

They all used it to stop working or go part time or buy a much nicer house. Don't pretend inheritance can't change lives.

And why wouldn’t you want that for your own children?

Would only certain charities qualify? How about the charities such as the Donkey Sanctuary? At the moment you can get a reduction in your IHT bill if you donate a certain % of your estate to charity, but this can be any charity. perhaps the government could make the reduction larger if they would want this idea to become a reality but I can't see this happening as it would reduce their income from IHT.
Whilst I would consider donating money to charity in my will I don't want to be told which charity or what type it should be.

You have to have a large inheritance before you pay inheritance tax

It's a million quid now isn't it? That's the equivalent of dying and leaving a 3 bed terrace house round my local area.

It used to be 250k... disgustingly low.

I feel uneasy that people who are within perfectly normal ranges of income or savings are increasingly being referred to as wealthy or privileged. Yes, they have advantages over those who struggle to afford the basics, that's really not the same thing.

Muddling the definition of wealthy with comfortable/not struggling doesn't help anyone. Sorry to derail, as you were...

To me £5.000 is a lot of money, your money to leave to whome you desire. I used to give a lot of money to charities, now feeling the money goes to corrupt governemtns abroad instead, and not happy with methods of some of the charities I gave to over here, pushy and unpleasant!

I think people are entitled to leave their money to whoever they wish. And as others have said there is inheritance tax which is payable on bigger estates. Too many charities are paying directors six figure sums. A salary most people can only dream about. I don't feel I want to contribute to that.

If charities didn't have such a bad press I would leave them something.

But I'm afraid none of them really instil any confidence in me, ie. that the donations get to where they should be going. I do realise that there has to be administration/oversight and auditing and so on.

However, some of the offices and buildings they use are amazing and their CEO's and (some) staff earn very good salaries. No problem with a CEO getting a decent salary, but some of the amounts make my toes curl TBH.

I am so sorry to say that, as I do realise many charities are virtuous, but they are nearly all sucked into the PR machine, for which they have to pay dearly.

Anyway leave your money/assets to your children if you want to. Do not be guilt tripped by anyone. Your money, absolutely your circus.

No, you earned that money (quite likely with the intention of fulfilling your parental duty to take care of your children) so you have every right to do what you want with it. You have just as much right to leave all of it to your children as you do to leave none of it to your children. 'The poor' are no more entitled to your money than your children are, who gets it is entirely your discretion as a reflection on the effort that you put into obtaining that money.

Ds2 has aspergers and will need all the help he can get. I fully intend for him to inherit as much as possible. The welfare state is being dismantled and I want him to have a safety net. I challenge anybody to criticise me for doing this.

I think all inheritance should be abolished
The problem with this is you need people to pay for their own old age if they can. If you scrap the right to leave your assets to your loved ones after death, it would encourage people to give away their assets during their lifetimes. I can easily see if you did that, as soon as most people hit 65, they would be encouraged to sign over houses and savings to their DCs. But this means if they then need care later on, they wouldn't have assets/savings to use. They would have spent it or given it away.

Right now, it's the situation that it's just what's left that adult chidlren get. Getting people to 'guess' how much money they would need then give away/spend the rest isn't going to work well.

Most of that money would go into the pockets of charity CEOs who are wealthier than most people.

In a broader sense, all of these attempts to make society more egalitarian - doing away with grammar schools, rolling back homework so as not to disadvantage children with apathetic parents, basing benefits on the number of children, limiting inheritance, etc - some do-gooders may think that this benefits children in the here and now and who knows, maybe they're right.

God knows it destroys the culture of a nation over time.

I don't agree, our daughter will get everything and hopefully it will help make her life easier at the time.
My dad is leaving everything to me and my brother to ensure we have more security.
We all donate to charities both monetary and food/toiletries etc