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 is the process by which a deceased person's rights and property are transferred to their heirs, while inheritance is the property or assets those heirs receive.
Succession may occur either under the generally applicable statutory rules, referred to as intestate succession, or in accordance with the provisions outlined in a valid will. A will often must be attested by a notary or by other lawful means to be 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 (Quebec).
Terminology
In law, an heir ( heiress) is a person who is entitled to receive a share of property from a decedent (a person who died), 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 (such as the US state of Louisiana, which allows disinheritance only under specifically enumerated circumstances), a person who would otherwise be an heir may be disinherited completely under the terms of a will (an example is that of the will of comedian Jerry Lewis; his will specifically disinherited his six children by his first wife, and their descendants, leaving his entire estate to his second wife).
Inheritance has been compared to nepotism.
History
Detailed anthropological and sociological studies have been conducted on customs of patrimonial inheritance, in which only male children can inherit. Some cultures also employ matrilineal succession, where property can only pass along the female line, most commonly to the decedent's sister's sons, but also, in some societies, to the mother and 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.Hebrew-English Bible 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.Hebrew-English Bible
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.Hebrew-English Bible (The daughters of Zelophehad marry the sons of their father's brothers. There is no indication that this was not their choice.)
The laws of Jewish inheritance are discussed in the Talmud,In tractate Baba Bathra in the Mishneh Torah and by Saadiah ben Joseph among other sources.
Philo of AlexandriaSpec. Leg. 2.130 and JosephusAnt. 4.249 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 began to distance themselves from Judaism and to exert influence over the laws and practices of secular institutions. From the beginning, this included inheritance. The Roman practice of adoption was a specific target because it was perceived as in conflict with the Judeo-Christian doctrine of primogeniture. As Stephanie Coontz documents in Marriage, a History (Penguin, 2006), 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 some rights and restrictions regarding inheritance, including general improvements in the treatment of women and family life compared to the pre-Islamic societies of the Arabian Peninsula. 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 from those of men because in Islam, someone always has the 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 their property.
Three verses of the Quran, 4:11, 4:12, and 4:176, give specific details on inheritance and shares, in addition to a few other verses dealing with testamentary matters.,, 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. However, many Muslim people (see Historical inheritance systems) follow other inheritance customs.
Inequality
The distribution of inherited wealth has varied greatly across cultures and legal traditions. In nations using civil law, for example, the right of children to inherit wealth from their parents in predefined ratios is enshrined in law.Julia Twigg and Alain Grand. Contrasting legal conceptions of family obligation and financial reciprocity in the support of older people: France and England Ageing & Society, 18(2) March 1998, pp. 131-146 as far back as the Code of Hammurabi (ca. 1750 BC).Edmond N. Cahn. Restraints on Disinheritance University of Pennsylvania Law Review and American Law Register, Vol. 85, No. 2 (Dec., 1936), pp. 139-153 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.43 Loy. L. Rev. 1 (1997-1998) The New Forced Heirship in Louisiana: Historical Perspectives, Comparative Law Analyses and Reflections upon the Integration of New Structures into a Classical Civil Law System 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 share while the minority receives a larger share. 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, which amounts to far less than the value of the business initially given to the son. This is especially seen in old-world cultures, but continues in many families to this day.Davies, James B. "The Relative Impact of Inheritance and Other Factors on Economic Inequality". The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Vol. 97, No. 3, pp. 471
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 intergenerational transmission of income or wealth, which is said to directly affect one's mobility (or immobility) and class position in society. Nations differ on the political structure and policy options that govern the transfer of wealth.Angel, Jacqueline L. Inheritance in Contemporary America: The Social Dimensions of Giving across Generations. p. 35
According to the American federal government statistics compiled by Mark Zandi in 1985, the average US inheritance was $39,000. In subsequent years, the total annual inheritance more than doubled, reaching nearly $200 billion. By 2050, an estimated $25 trillion in inheritance will be transmitted across generations.Marable, Manning. "Letter From America: Inheritance, Wealth and Race." Google pages.com