The “Estate”

Lifelong family friends own more than a thousand acres of land deep in Southern Mississippi, which they refer to as “the estate.” There isn’t a holiday get-together that passes without the family meeting and voting on different issues regarding the property.

It gets messy with eight brothers and sisters each having strong opinions and owning an eighth of the massive estate.

Some of the siblings have long ago moved out of state and want nothing to do with the discord or the small dividend check that comes every quarter from their inheritance.

Others believe their father would never have wanted his children to break relationship over something as petty as property. Yet resentments have grown, angry emails have been written, sides have been taken, and, most of all, relationships have been damaged and probably lost completely.

Sadly, this family’s inheritance story is not rare: those involved just have more money at stake than most of us. Greed, envy, jealousy, and entitlement seem to come out in talks of money and inheritance. Each of us has an idea what is just, what we think we deserve, and what we believe we’re entitled to.