Inheritance
Inheritance is the practice of receiving private property, titles, debts, entitlements, privileges, rights, and obligations upon the death of an individual. The rules of inheritance differ among societies and have changed over time. In legal terms, succession refers to the process by which a deceased person’s rights and property are transferred to their heirs, while inheritance refers to the actual property or assets that those heirs receive.
Succession may occur either under the generally applicable statutory rules, referred to as intestate succession, or in accordance with the provisions set forth in a valid will. A will often must be attested by a notary or by other lawful means in order to valid.
Legal systems can differ significantly in how property passes from a deceased person to their heirs, with common law jurisdictions typically requiring formal probate procedures, while civil law systems often allow heirs to acquire ownership automatically by operation of law - the principle of saisine or seizin.
Terminology
In law, an heir is a person who is entitled to receive a share of property from a decedent, subject to the rules of inheritance in the jurisdiction where the decedent was a citizen, or where the decedent died or owned property at the time of death.The inheritance may be either under the terms of a will or by intestacy laws if the deceased had no will. However, the will must comply with the laws of the jurisdiction at the time it was created or it will be declared invalid - for example, some states do not recognise handwritten wills as valid, or only in specific circumstances - and the intestacy laws then apply.
The exclusion from inheritance of a person who was an heir in a previous will, or would be expected to inherit under the laws of intestate succession, is termed disinheritance.
A person does not become an heir before the death of the deceased, since the exact identity of the persons entitled to inherit is determined only then. Members of ruling noble or royal houses who are expected to become heirs are called heirs apparent if first in line and incapable of being displaced from inheriting by another claim; otherwise, they are heirs presumptive. There is a further concept of joint inheritance, pending renunciation by all but one, which is called coparceny.
In modern law, the terms ‘'inheritance'’ and '‘heir’' apply only to property passed by intestate succession that is, from a person who dies without a will. Property distributed under a will passes to beneficiaries, who may be called devisees for real property, legatees for money, and recipients of bequests for other personal property.
Except in some jurisdictions where a person cannot be legally disinherited, a person who would otherwise be an heir may be disinherited completely under the terms of a will.
Inheritance has been compared to nepotism.
History
Detailed anthropological and sociological studies have been made about customs of patrimonial inheritance, where only male children can inherit. Some cultures also employ matrilineal succession, where property can only pass along the female line, most commonly going to the sister's sons of the decedent; but also, in some societies, from the mother to her daughters. Some ancient societies and most modern states employ egalitarian inheritance, without discrimination based on gender and/or birth order.Religious laws about inheritance
Jewish laws
The inheritance is patrimonial. The father —that is, the owner of the land— bequeaths only to his male descendants. According to the Law of Moses, the firstborn son was entitled to receive twice as much of his father's inheritance as the other sons.If there were no living sons and no descendants of any previously living sons, daughters inherit. In Numbers 27, the five daughters of Zelophehad come to Moses and ask for their father's inheritance, as they have no brothers. The order of inheritance is set out: a man's sons inherit first, daughters if no sons, brothers if he has no children, and so on.
Later, in Numbers 36, some of the heads of the families of the tribe of Manasseh come to Moses and point out that, if a daughter inherits and then marries a man not from her paternal tribe, her land will pass from her birth-tribe's inheritance into her marriage-tribe's. So a further rule is laid down: if a daughter inherits land, she must marry someone within her father's tribe.
The laws of Jewish inheritance are discussed in the Talmud, in the Mishneh Torah and by Saadiah ben Joseph among other sources. All these sources agree that the firstborn son is entitled to a double portion of his father's estate. This means that, for example, if a father left five sons, the firstborn receives a third of the estate and each of the other four receives a sixth. If he left nine sons, the firstborn receives a fifth and each of the other eight receive a tenth. If the eldest surviving son is not the firstborn son, he is not entitled to the double portion.
Philo of Alexandria and Josephus also comment on the Jewish laws of inheritance, praising them above other law codes of their time. They also agreed that the firstborn son must receive a double portion of his father's estate.
Christian laws
At first, Christianity did not have its own inheritance traditions distinct from Judaism. With the accession of Emperor Constantine in 306, Christians both began to distance themselves from Judaism and to have influence on the law and practices of secular institutions. From the beginning, this included inheritance. The Roman practice of adoption was a specific target, because it was perceived to be in conflict with the Judeo-Christian doctrine of primogeniture. As Stephanie Coontz documents in Marriage, a History, not only succession but the whole constellation of rights and practices that included marriage, adoption, legitimacy, consanguinity, and inheritance changed in Western Europe from a Greco-Roman model to a Judeo-Christian pattern, based on Biblical and traditional Judeo-Christian principles. The transformation was essentially complete in the Middle Ages, although in English-speaking countries there was additional development under the influence of Protestantism. Even when Europe became secularized and Christianity faded into the background, the legal foundation Christendom had laid remained. Only in the era of modern jurisprudence have there been significant changes.Islamic laws
The Quran introduced a number of different rights and restrictions on matters of inheritance, including general improvements to the treatment of women and family life compared to the pre-Islamic societies that existed in the Arabian Peninsula at the time. Furthermore, the Quran introduced additional heirs that were not entitled to inheritance in pre-Islamic times, mentioning nine relatives specifically of which six were female and three were male. However, the inheritance rights of women remained different to those of men because in Islam someone always has a responsibility of looking after a woman's expenses. According to 4:11, for example, a son is entitled to twice as much inheritance as a daughter. The Quran also presented efforts to fix the laws of inheritance, and thus forming a complete legal system. This development was in contrast to pre-Islamic societies where rules of inheritance varied considerably. In addition to the above changes, the Quran imposed restrictions on testamentary powers of a Muslim in disposing his or her property.Three verses of the Quran, 4:11, 4:12 and 4:176, give specific details of inheritance and shares, in addition to few other verses dealing with testamentary. But this information was used as a starting point by Muslim jurists who expounded the laws of inheritance even further using Hadith, as well as methods of juristic reasoning like Qiyas. Nowadays, inheritance is considered an integral part of Sharia law and its application for Muslims is mandatory, though many peoples, despite being Muslim, have other inheritance customs.
Inequality
The distribution of the inherited wealth has varied greatly among different cultures and legal traditions. In nations using civil law, for example, the right of children to inherit wealth from parents in pre-defined ratios is enshrined in law, as far back as the Code of Hammurabi. In the US State of Louisiana, the only US state where the legal system is derived from the Napoleonic Code, this system is known as "forced heirship" which prohibits disinheritance of adult children except for a few narrowly defined reasons that a parent is obligated to prove. Other legal traditions, particularly in nations using common law, allow inheritances to be divided however one wishes, or to disinherit any child for any reason.In cases of unequal inheritance, the majority might receive a small amount while the minority inherits a larger amount. The amount of inheritance is often far less than the value of a business initially given to the son, especially when a son takes over a thriving multimillion-dollar business, yet the daughter is given the balance of the actual inheritance amounting to far less than the value of the business that was initially given to the son. This is especially seen in old world cultures, but continues in many families to this day.
Arguments for eliminating forced heirship include the right to property and the merit of individual allocation of capital over government wealth confiscation and redistribution, but this does not resolve what some describe as the problem of unequal inheritance. In terms of inheritance inequality, some economists and sociologists focus on the inter generational transmission of income or wealth which is said to have a direct impact on one's mobility and class position in society. Nations differ on the political structure and policy options that govern the transfer of wealth.
According to the American federal government statistics compiled by Mark Zandi in 1985, the average US inheritance was $39,000. In subsequent years, the overall amount of total annual inheritance more than doubled, reaching nearly $200 billion. By 2050, there will be an estimated $25 trillion inheritance transmitted across generations.
Some researchers have attributed this rise to the baby boomers generation. Historically, the baby boomers were the largest influx of children conceived after WW2. For this reason, Thomas Shapiro suggests that this generation "is in the midst of benefiting from the greatest inheritance of wealth in history". Inherited wealth may help explain why many Americans who have become rich may have had a "substantial head start". In September 2012, according to the Institute for Policy Studies, "over 60 percent" of the Forbes richest 400 Americans "grew up in substantial privilege", and often received substantial inheritances.
Other research has shown that many inheritances, large or small, are rapidly squandered. Similarly, analysis shows that over two-thirds of high-wealth families lose their wealth within two generations, and almost 80% of high-wealth parents "feel the next generation is not financially responsible enough to handle inheritance".