Money and the Elderly⤒🔗

How should the elderly manage their money? A strange question, per­haps. In a past issue of Reformed Per­spective we have written about how young people should deal with their money, and that was appropriate. After all, young people have an entire income-producing life ahead of them. They have decisions to make — for example, what career to choose, when to buy a house, what type of mortgage to arrange, what type of car to purchase, how to budget properly so that all expenses can be met, when to start saving for retirement, etc. But seniors? What can we tell them? Their working days are over and they are hopefully enjoying a well-deserved retirement.

But although seniors are no longer part of the active work force, they are involved with money matters and have financial planning decisions to make. One type of decision involves inheri­tance. What do we leave to our children? To others? Although we may be reluctant to discuss it, inheritance is a crucial part of good stewardship.

Andrew Carnegie, a late-nineteenth century industrialist and philanthropist believed that a man who died leaving few instructions on how his estate should be distributed would pass away "un-wept, un-honoured, and un-sung." Many thought that he knew what he was talking about. In 1889 he wrote an essay enti­tled "The Gospel of Wealth," in which he argued that by giving away their great fortunes, rich men would produce "an ideal state in which the surplus wealth of the few will become, in the best sense, the property of many." Giving away the entire fortune to one's children, Carnegie called "misguided affection."

An overly simplistic view from an­other era, someone might argue. Well, today that same perspective is held by Warren Buffet, chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, with assets worth at least $4 billion. Upon his death, Buffet plans to give his great wealth not to his three children but to his charitable foundation. Buffet believes that the perfect amount to leave children is "enough money so that they could do anything, but not so much that they could do nothing." Now not many people are billionaires, and that perhaps makes the above examples somewhat unrealistic; however, the les­son is that parents should not indiscrimi­nately leave money to children without making sure they are going to do something useful with it.

Inheritance and the Bible←⤒🔗

The Bible speaks in many places about inheritance. In the Old Testament, inheritance refers not only to an estate re­ceived by a child from his parents but also the land received by the children of Israel as a gift from the LORD. Already in Genesis 12, God promised Abram that he would give his descendants the land of Canaan. This promise was passed down through the generations to Moses, who repeatedly reminded God's chosen people that the land was Yahweh's and that He was giving it to His people. Fun­damental here is that God's people hold the land as an inheritance only through His favour, not by right.

In the New Testament, too, inheri­tance is mentioned. In Jesus' parables it is the orderly transmission of property from father to son. For example, in the parable of the tenants found in Mark 12, the tenants killed the heir so that the in­heritance would go to them instead. Sim­ilarly, the parable of the lost son as de­scribed in Matthew 15 illustrates how one son put in an early claim to the in­heritance due to him, to do with as he wished. The New Testament also refers to the kingdom of God as an inheritance which will be fully possessed in the fu­ture (Romans 8:17). These and other vers­es serve as a starting point for making some suggestions about estate planning.

Estate Planning←⤒🔗

Because we are directing our com­ments primarily to a wise and experi­enced audience, it is with due humility that we offer the following basic princi­ples of estate planning.

• Plan to balance your money man­agement. Don't give your money away as soon as you have it, or your children and other heirs will have nothing in fu­ture. On the other hand, if you hoard your money until the day you die, your estate may well end up paying some hefty tax­es. This is where the balancing act comes in. Try to give as much as possible to worthy causes, while at the same time in­vesting enough for the future. This is not easy and you may well wish to get help in making these decisions. There are Christian financial managers available. Seek their advice without hesitation.

• Talk to your children in general terms about how you expect them to handle the money you leave them. Re­mind them that money, like everything else, comes from God the provider, and belongs to Him. A percentage of the money left to children is therefore to be spent where they have their hearts — in Christian causes. Sitting down and talk­ing to your children about this may save much trouble later.

• Try to leave part of your inheri­tance to a Christian institution like a school. Then make it a requirement that the institution spend that money within a certain time period and perhaps for a specific purpose. For example, you want to leave $10,000.00 to a certain Christian school; however, they must spend it within five years on updating their computer lab. There should be much more of this type of inheritance spending. We wonder if children of seniors ever dis­cuss this with their parents, namely, that a part of the estate will go back to God. In these discussions with their parents, children may find it difficult to put aside selfish motives, yet they should do so in order that others may benefit.

• Convene a family meeting on the subject of inheritance. Resolve any dif­ferences now, so that sibling rivalry over who gets what does not flare up after death. Again, in this matter solicit the ad­vice of a professional financial planner, and use his expertise.

For Everyone←⤒🔗

In the final analysis, our advice in not just for seniors but for everyone. Es­tate planning, like any other type of plan­ning, requires wisdom and love. The apostle Paul wrote, "If I give all that I have to the poor ... but have not love, I gain nothing." That makes love the great­est inheritance of all. For seniors and children alike, it is this knowledge, too, that must be passed from generation to generation.