         These are true stories of men and women who have been challenged by (and who, often enough, have chosen to challenge) the wealth that has become theirs by virtue of inheritance. They have been born to the bright promise of money, but have also learned that such a lot is not without plenty of potential hazards, if not outright dangers. It is, I fear, all too easy for many of us who have never faced this particular kind of situation to be somewhat skeptical of the very real threats it can pose.
- Robert Coles, author of Children of Crisis series from the foreword to The Legacy of Inherited Wealth |
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G E N E R A L C L I N I C A L
I S S U E S
p a g e 3
When an heir has strong negative feelings about her "benefactor" (the person who gave the wealth), she may act out her confusion, anger, shame, etc., and direct that acting-out at the money itself. For instance, when an heir is angry at the parent who passed on the wealth, he may become paralyzed in relation to the money, or start spending it with a vengeance.
When a parent's death is the occasion for an inheritance, especially if the death is sudden and unexpected, heirs may also react in extreme ways. My client Tracy, for example, knew an inheritance was coming, but she received it suddenly and prematurely at age nineteen, after both her parents died in an automobile crash. When she received a financial statement revealing the exact amount of her inheritance, she felt rage over her parents' death; it felt to her as if the money was supposed to replace her mother and father. Fifteen years later, when Tracy came to me, she was still unable to manage even small amounts of money: whenever she looked at any figure with a dollar sign, her mind went blank. In the language of post-traumatic stress theory, she was "dissociating* in response to the trigger," which invariably brought back her unresolved rage over her parents' death.
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