Should we leave inheritance?

Question 11038.

Leaving an inheritance is commended in Proverbs and complicated by almost everything else Scripture says about money, which is why sincere Christians land in very different places on it.

Some are determined to pass on everything they have. Others intend to give it all away and let their children make their own way. Both quote the Bible, and both are partly right, which usually means the question has been framed too narrowly.

Scripture commends leaving an inheritance

The clearest statement is “A good man leaves an inheritance to his children’s children, but the sinner’s wealth is laid up for the righteous.” That is a positive statement about a good man, and the horizon is two generations rather than one. Long-term provision is presented as a mark of goodness.

The Mosaic legislation took inheritance seriously enough to build an entire land-tenure system around it, with the Jubilee designed to return property to families. The daughters of Zelophehad received a ruling from God himself so that their father’s inheritance would not be lost.

Paul assumes the same instinct when he says that children are not obliged to save up for their parents, but parents for their children. Leaving an inheritance is the normal direction of provision, and Scripture treats that as fitting rather than as worldly.

The warnings that sit alongside

Proverbs also says that an inheritance gained hastily at the beginning will not be blessed in the end. Ecclesiastes broods over the fact that a man must leave everything to someone who comes after him, and who knows whether he will be wise or a fool.

Money handed to an unprepared heir does damage. I have watched it happen. A significant sum arriving in the life of someone who has never learned to handle it is closer to a hazard than a gift, and no amount of good intention on the giver’s part prevents that.

There is also the danger of the inheritance becoming the point. When a family’s energy is organised around what will be left, resentment tends to arrive long before the will is read. Jesus was asked to arbitrate an inheritance dispute and refused, then warned the crowd about covetousness. He knew what the question usually conceals.

What is actually being handed on

Scripture uses inheritance language far more often for what cannot be banked. The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places, says the psalmist, indeed I have a beautiful inheritance, and he is talking about the Lord himself. Believers are called heirs of God and co-heirs with Jesus.

That reframing does not cancel the financial question, but it does put it in its place. The most valuable thing you can leave your children is a household where God was honoured, Scripture was read and forgiveness was practised. I have never met an adult who wished their parents had left more money and less of that.

Timothy’s faith is traced by Paul through his grandmother Lois and his mother Eunice. That is an inheritance, and it cost them nothing in currency.

Practical wisdom on leaving an inheritance

Give some of it while you are alive if you can. Money that arrives when children are thirty-five and buying a home does far more good than money that arrives when they are sixty and settled. It also lets you see it used and to teach as you go.

Be even-handed unless there is a genuine reason not to be. Uneven wills without explanation are a reliable way to divide siblings for life. If there is a good reason, say so in writing while you are alive rather than leaving a document to deliver the news.

And do not let leaving an inheritance crowd out present generosity. A believer who gives nothing for forty years in order to leave a large estate has spent a lifetime declining opportunities God put in front of him. The balance matters, and I say more about it where I discuss how much money is enough.

When there is nothing to leave

Many faithful believers will leave very little, and some will leave debt. That is not a moral failure. Care costs, illness costs, and a lifetime of low income leaves little room for accumulation. Proverbs describes a pattern, not a requirement binding on every household.

The widow who gave two small copper coins left nothing behind and received the highest commendation in the Gospels. God does not assess a life by the estate.

What every believer can leave, whatever the balance, is a testimony, a set of remembered prayers and a family that saw faith held under pressure. That is the inheritance that lasts past probate.

Leaving an inheritance to children who differ

One of the hardest situations is a family where one child is careful and another is not. Parents agonise over whether leaving an inheritance equally is fair when the outcomes will be so different, and there is no formula that resolves it.

What I would say is that equality and wisdom can usually be reconciled by structure rather than by amount. A trust, staged payments, or a sum held for a specific purpose such as housing can protect a vulnerable heir without publicly declaring them the unreliable one. Solicitors deal with this constantly and the arrangements are not exotic.

What causes lasting damage is silence followed by surprise. If leaving an inheritance in unequal shares is genuinely right, say so in person while you are alive and explain the reasoning. Proverbs 3:27 tells us not to withhold good from those to whom it is due when it is in our power to act, and clarity is part of that good.

Estranged and difficult relationships

Some families carry real wounds, and the question of leaving an inheritance to a child who has cut off contact is genuinely painful. Scripture does not give a rule here, and anyone who offers you one has not sat with enough grieving families.

What Scripture does give is a warning against using money as a weapon. A will that is designed to make a point is a final act of retaliation, and it will land after you can no longer explain or reconcile. That is a heavy thing to leave behind, whatever the provocation was.

The father in Luke 15 had already given a portion to a son who wanted him dead, and he was still watching the road. That is not a legal precedent, and it is not a requirement to fund destructive behaviour. It is a picture of a heart that had not closed, and it is worth holding in mind while the will is being drafted.

When leaving an inheritance is not the priority

There are seasons where present need outweighs future provision, and Scripture is not sentimental about this. If your church has a family facing genuine hardship and you have capital sitting idle, the New Testament instinct is to act now rather than preserve the estate.

The early church in Acts sold property to meet need, and Barnabas is commended by name for it. Nobody suggests they were failing their descendants. 1 John 3:17 asks how God’s love abides in anyone who has the world’s goods, sees his brother in need, and closes his heart against him.

So leaving an inheritance is a good thing that must take its place among other good things. It is not the highest use of money, it is not owed to anyone as a right, and a believer who spends generously in life and leaves less has not failed. I would rather stand before God having given too much away than too little.

And do talk about it aloud. Families where leaving an inheritance has never been mentioned are the ones where the reading of the will becomes an ambush, and the resentment that follows outlasts the money by decades. A conversation over a kitchen table now is worth more than any clause a solicitor can draft.

One last word to those who feel behind on this. Leaving an inheritance is a good aim and not a duty you have failed if circumstances made it impossible. Health, caring responsibilities and low income are not moral failures, and a family that inherits a living faith and a paid-up funeral has received rather more than many who inherit a house.

So, now what?

Make a will. Around half of British adults have not, which means the state decides, and the state has no interest in your church, your convictions or your particular family. I say more about the mechanics where I address wills and estate planning.

Then talk to your family about it while everyone is well. Awkward conversations now are far cheaper than legal ones later, and children who understand your reasoning rarely contest it.

And consider including the Lord’s work in what you leave. A final act of generosity is a fitting last sermon. What would you want the disposal of your estate to say about what you believed?

“A good man leaves an inheritance to his children’s children, but the sinner’s wealth is laid up for the righteous.”

Proverbs 13:22 (ESV)