Man With More Kids Slammed for Demanding Bigger Inheritance Share: 'Unfair'

A social media user has been backed online after sharing their concern over how a family inheritance was divided—with one son receiving more money than his brother because he has one more child.

The poster, who used the handle Benja1405, set out the situation on parenting forum Mumsnet and asked for other users' opinions. They explained that a father had died and left his entire estate to his two sons. The father was divorced, Benja1405 said, and both sons are married with children.

One son has three children and the other has two. Benja1405 confirmed in a follow-up post that "we're the two," but did not specify whether they were the son or his wife.

They wrote: "Lawyer thought straight 50/50 between the two sons. Son with three children thinks 55/45 in his favor is fairer as he has more children."

In the event, the father opted for the 55/45 split in his will. The original poster asked if "this is unfair on the other son," saying in a follow-up post that the lawyer had "commented that he didn't think it was very fair."

Benja1405 added that the "son with three children helped the father make the will when he was dying."

How an inheritance should be split is one of the main topics of money-based disagreements between siblings, according to research. A study conducted by financial services company Ameriprise in 2017 found that only 15 percent of people reported conflicts with siblings over money—but of those that did, nearly 70 percent of the arguments related to their parents. Most involved how an inheritance should be divided.

On Mumsnet, most respondents to Benja1405's post felt the will had been unfair and the inheritance should have been divided equally between the two sons.

"It should be split per number of siblings, not the number of grandchildren. Siblings then decide how to split amongst their own children," wrote one user.

"Is the inheritance for the sons or the grandchildren?" asked another. "If it's for the sons, 50/50. If it's for the grandchildren, split five ways."

Another Mumsnet user posted: "Like most other people have said, that would be an unfair approach that basically 'rewards' people for having as many kids as possible, and penalizes the childfree/childless.

"Not that anyone is entitled to any inheritance at all, really, but where parents have decided to leave to children it should be an equal share to each child regardless of how many children that child has."

For other commenters, however, the issue shouldn't even be debated, given that the father had the right to do whatever he wanted with his money. One wrote simply: "Whatever the will said."

Benja1405 later confirmed that although the difference between the two sons' bequests is "a sizeable amount," the will won't "be contested as it's not worth the fall-out."