Should a Parent of Two Children Split Inheritance Equally?

May 30, 2020

Illustration by Tomi Um

The Ethicist

Should a Parent of Two Children Split Inheritance Equally?

The magazine’s Ethicist columnist on dividing your estate equally among heirs, taking advantage of the CARES Act and using PayPal to pay contractors.

By Kwame Anthony Appiah

This is the situation: An elderly parent has a fair amount of money and two children. One is wealthy with luxury properties, a spouse and no children. This child lives far away and visits only sporadically. The other lives near the parent, earns a modest salary, has children and several grandchildren and regularly visits and helps the elderly parent. This parent thinks it’s only fair to leave her children an equal share of her assets. Is this, in fact, ethical?

Read the Ethicist’s response here.

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