How Much Should My Irresponsible Child Benefit from My Estate?

You should not give high value financial or material resources to foul, lazy, or undiscerning people who care only about satisfying their own desires, but you can still give something of lesser value to such a person. Matthew 7:6 says, “…Do not throw your pearls before pigs, lest they trample them underfoot and turn to attack you.” Pigs do not respect or appreciate pearls as fine jewelry. Pigs are foul, lazy, undiscerning animals who care only about eating and see anything that they receive as either worthless or good for one thing: eating. Pearls are not food to be eaten; they are beautiful items of fine jewelry to be worn or displayed, ranging from $100-$100,000 in value. Therefore, pearls are of no use to pigs.

Just as people should not give pearls to pigs, you should not give material possessions or financial resources with a value between $100-$100,000 to foul, lazy, or undiscerning people who care only about satisfying their own desires. Such people will not treat the material possessions or financial resources that they receive with the respect that they deserve. Rather, foul, lazy, or undiscerning people will waste such assets, sometimes quickly, on frivolous or even bad things.

Even though you should not give a foul, lazy, or undiscerning person the “keys to your kingdom,” so-to-speak, you can still give something to such a person, but the nature and amount of financial or material resources that you give to them should be of much less value than the value of the nature or amount of financial or material resources that you would give to those with better character or habits. For example, if you decide to pass your estate to your children through a will and you have one discerning, responsible child and one undiscerning, irresponsible child, you can, like the father of the prodigal son in Jesus’ parable likely chose to do given the culture of that time, give 2/3 of the total value of your estate to the discerning, responsible child and 1/3 of the total value of your estate to the undiscerning, irresponsible child. If you want your undiscerning, irresponsible child to benefit from your estate as much as your discerning, responsible child as possible, you can set up a trust with a provision that limits distributions to only those to pay for “health, education, maintenance, and support” and give the trustee absolute discretion over any other spending. You can also condition distributions on the avoidance of certain behavior, such as substance abuse.

To speak with Hartis Law about leaving an inheritance to someone who you think is foul, lazy, or undiscerning, call or text (864)-477-9444 or email anna.hartis@pm.me.