Several experts said that the ways that families handle these situations depends on multiple factors, such as what caused the disparity, how strong the sibling relationships are, whether the parents have money and more.
When planning for your estate, you often look at the financial stability of your children. Who is better off financially? Do you leave more or less of an inheritance, depending on the income gap? And if you do leave different amounts to your heirs, will it look like you loved the other child more?
This may conjure up thoughts of the Prodigal Son-the child who took his inheritance and squandered it-only to return to his father’s home to humbly ask for a job as a servant. As you may recall, the father wouldn’t hear of it and threw a large party to celebrate his return. His older brother who spent all that time hard at work did not exactly welcome him back with open arms. There was no further mention of the blown inheritance by the father, and the story indicated that the Prodigal Son was treated equally and presumably received another half of his father’s estate upon his death. There were no hard feelings by the older brother thereafter. Or were there?
