inheritance

Receiving a (generally large) amount of property, wealth, money, etc, from a deceased relative or close one, after being "mentioned" in their "will". In extreme cases, such as very large inheritances, typical results include marriage break-up (spouse hates partner for being so rich), personality collapse (what the heck do I do now I don't have to work for a living??), idleness, egomania, etc. Many heirs or heiresses experience guilt and self-loathing in proportion to the size of the inheritance received. Inheritance planning is supposed to alleviate this by only giving heirs money if they achieve in life, a gameplan that rarely works. Heirs within families usually fight over minor differences in sizes of inheritances recieved. There is a strong tendancy for young people in particular to be very adversely affected by large inheritances, contrary to the misconceptions of a wonderful life generated by popular envy feelings, these people are usually isolated, guilt-ridden and unsatisfied.