Jason is 51 years old, financially stable and grieving. His mother died in December. His grandmother passed away the following week. His wife\u2019s grandmother died in January. He called The Ramsey Show with a predicament: amid all of this loss, his father is asking him to give away his inheritance.<\/p>\n
Because Jason\u2019s mother died before his grandmother, the grandmother\u2019s estate passes through the family lineage \u2014 meaning Jason, his sister and two aunts each inherit a share, bypassing his father. Jason\u2019s cut is roughly $100,000. His father, who argues Jason is doing fine, wants him to hand his portion over to his sister, who he said has always struggled financially and needs to start building retirement savings.<\/p>\n
Must Read <\/p>\n
What his father apparently didn\u2019t mention: Jason had recently paid off his sister\u2019s credit card debt out of his own pocket, negotiating with creditors to settle $24,000 for $16,000. His sister is also already receiving her own $100,000 inheritance from the same estate (1).<\/p>\n
\u201cI think that\u2019s totally out of bounds that he asked that,\u201d co-host Jade Warshaw said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIsn\u2019t she already getting $100,000?\u201d co-host George Kamel added (1). \u201cI would not be giving your sister this money. And it\u2019s not because you\u2019re cruel. It\u2019s because it\u2019s actually going to hurt her, not be a blessing to her. We don\u2019t weigh inheritance based on who could use it the most.\u201d<\/p>\n
A common family pressure point <\/p>\n
Jason\u2019s situation isn\u2019t unusual. As the so-called Great Wealth Transfer accelerates \u2014 Northwestern Mutual projects (2) roughly $90 trillion will pass between generations in the coming decades \u2014 family disagreements over who gets what, and what recipients should do with it, are becoming increasingly common.<\/p>\n
The study found that more than half of Americans expecting to receive an inheritance consider it \u201ccritical\u201d or \u201chighly critical\u201d to their long-term financial security (2).<\/p>\n
That weight makes the pressure Jason is feeling all the more loaded \u2014 and all the more worth pushing back on.<\/p>\n
Read More: Taxes are going to change under Trump\u2019s \u2018big beautiful bill\u2019 \u2014 4 reasons you can\u2019t afford to waste time<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Why giving it away may not help anyone <\/p>\n Kamel\u2019s concern about the money \u201churting\u201d Jason\u2019s sister rather than helping her is backed up. (2)A survey by Citizens Bank found that 72% of Americans don\u2019t feel confident in their ability to manage a financial windfall \u2014 and nearly a third of those who had previously received one said they\u2019d been burned by bad financial advice in the process (3).<\/p>\n The sister \u2014 who has already run up $24,000 in credit card debt, had her bills settled by her brother and is now unable to qualify for new credit \u2014 is already receiving $100,000 of her own. Whether she\u2019s equipped to handle even that is an open question.<\/p>\n The cohosts point out that his sister has a job, a fianc\u00e9 and, soon, a clean financial slate. \u201cShe doesn\u2019t need your help at this point,\u201d Kamel pointed out (1).<\/p>\n What to do with the money instead <\/p>\n The hosts quickly shifted the conversation to Jason\u2019s own priorities, and there\u2019s a compelling case for keeping every dollar. Jason mentioned he has a son with special needs who will require lifelong care. Kamel\u2019s immediate answer: fund a special needs trust (1).<\/p>\n That advice is well-grounded.<\/p>\n According to Fidelity, a third-party special needs trust is a key financial tool available to families with disabled dependents \u2014 allowing them to provide supplemental support over a lifetime without disqualifying the beneficiary from government programs like Medicaid and SSI, which have strict asset limits (4).<\/p>\n A direct inheritance or gift, by contrast, can push a beneficiary\u2019s total assets above those thresholds and cost them their eligibility entirely (4).<\/p>\n Jason said he was also considering investing the money in an index fund as a reserve for his father\u2019s future care needs \u2014 a plan the hosts praised (1).<\/p>\n You May Also Like <\/p>\n Join 250,000+ readers and get Moneywise\u2019s best stories and exclusive interviews first \u2014 clear insights curated and delivered weekly. Subscribe now.<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Article Sources <\/p>\n We rely only on vetted sources and credible third-party reporting. For details, see our ethics and guidelines<\/a>.<\/p>\n YouTube (1<\/a>); Northwestern Mutual (2<\/a>); Citizens Bank (3<\/a>); Fidelity (4<\/a>)<\/p>\n This article originally appeared on Moneywise.com<\/a> under the title: He paid off his sister’s $24K debt. Now his dad wants him to hand over his $100K inheritance too<\/a><\/p>\n This article provides information only and should not be construed as advice. It is provided without warranty of any kind.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jason is 51 years old, financially stable and grieving. His mother died in December. His grandmother passed away…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":841451,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[15],"tags":[64,19664,23925,250,43939,255,6613,67,132,68],"class_list":["post-841450","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-personal-finance","tag-business","tag-credit-card-debt","tag-george-kamel","tag-inheritance","tag-jason","tag-personal-finance","tag-sister","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116686160354631585","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/841450","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=841450"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/841450\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/841451"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=841450"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=841450"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=841450"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}