Receiving an Inheritance

Giving a gift is a beautiful gesture. It’s an attempt to make someone else’s life a little bit better in a meaningful way.Receiving a gift, on the other hand, can be awkward. While most people appreciate the gesture of being given a gift, not everyone loves every gift they get. This can cause the recipient to worry about seeming ungrateful or hurting the gift-giver’s feelings.Luckily, there are two things that keep the stakes pretty low for most gifts. First, the amount of money involved is usually relatively modest. Second, the gift will often come with a gift receipt.The gift receipt is a wonderful invention. It gives the recipient permission to accept the gift but exchange it for something else, without seeming ungrateful or hurting the gift-giver’s feelings.An inheritance is a gift.It’s an attempt to make someone else’s life better in a meaningful way. However, the amount of money involved and the circumstances under which it is given can make it a difficult gift to receive.One thing I consistently notice is that when people receive an inheritance, they often feel reluctant to make any changes to the investments in the inherited portfolio.This is fine if the inherited investments are a good fit for where you are in your life.If the investments have been thoughtfully managed in recent years and include stocks of companies that have bright futures, you might not need to make significant changes.But what if the inherited investments aren’t a good fit for you? It’s not uncommon for people to inherit stock in companies that were industry leaders a generation or two ago but aren’t in a good position to compete moving forward. Those stocks might reflect investment decisions made 40 years ago.If the investments aren’t a good fit for you, try to give yourself permission to modify them.While an inheritance doesn’t come with an official gift receipt, the gift receipt is implied.This can be hard to accept. After all, when you lose someone you care about, it’s natural to want to help preserve their legacy. People often view their inheritance as their loved one’s legacy.But what I try to help my clients understand is that the inheritance itself isn’t the legacy. What you are able to do with the inheritance, for yourself and your family, that’s the legacy.It may take time, but it’s almost certainly what your loved one would want.