Anonymous wrote:Honestly, the idea that my parents' money is "my inheritance" is so alien to me that I can't even respond to your post.
Do you also consider your money to belong to your kids? How do you justify spending anything on yourself?
I agree. I think it's the idea that the parents would go out of their way to say - "I don't want YOU to get anything." That part is kind of hurtful.
Giving everything to charity is certainly a reasonable choice but one would think that something like that wouldn't happen out of the blue. I would expect the parent to have deep ties to the charity, maybe even consider the charity to be their own life's work. If that makes sense.
I wouldn't expect a parent to say - "I'm mad at your brother, therefore I'm leaving everything to the Save the Poison Oak Society". That would seem less about charity and more about making a point.
But it is their money so their choice obviously.