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Ruth Dixon-Mueller
Author
Passing On: What's Fair in Family Inheritance?
Most estate planning books focus on the legal practicalities. PA$$ING ON dives deeper, helping people who are writing their wills to avoid emotional minefields by choosing their beneficiaries wisely and distributing their assets fairly both within and outside the family.
Reviews
Kirkus Reviews

TITLE INFORMATION

PASSING ON

What's Fair in Family Inheritance?

Ruth Dixon-Mueller

CreateSpace (194 pp.)

$14.00 paperback, $8.99 e-book

ISBN: 978-1-5469-9147-2; September 17, 2017

BOOK REVIEW

A practical and philosophical consideration of the moral dilemmas that arise during estate planning.

One’s last will is more than just a legal document—it’s also a skein of tangled ethical conundrums that raises profound

philosophical questions about the scope of individual freedom, weighed against the demands of social justice. Author

Dixon-Mueller (

Population Policy and Women’s Rights

, 1993, etc.) has written a concise but comprehensive guide to

navigating these murky waters that considers the full range of stakeholders and competing principles. She begins by

sketching a synoptic history of the very idea of inheritance, discussing its ancient iteration within the Roman Republic

and its several permutations through the American Colonial period until today, showing how shifts in popular attitudes to

inheritance were partly a function of changing social and moral norms. Then the author discusses broader issues of

equity that pull the reader into the realm of political philosophy, pitting freedom against the collective needs of society

and, by extension, interrogating the proper scope of state regulation. While she provides practical guidance regarding

potentially challenging conversations about the way in which one bequeaths one’s property, she artfully dedicates much

of the work to raising and refining, in almost a Socratic fashion, moral problems that might be easy to miss. For example,

Dixon-Mueller sensitively discusses the difficulties posed by sentimental heirlooms and contradictory claims to them.

Also, she discusses problems that arise when determining the proper timing of disbursement of property: what if one’s

adult children could use that wealth now, well in advance of one’s passing? The entire work is laced with a kind of

pragmatic optimism; although many of these puzzles may seem intractable, the author is confident that reasonable

solutions can be found: “balances can be struck; that is part of the challenge.” Overall, this is a marvelously accessible

book, which is remarkable given its philosophic depth and rigor.

A valuable resource crafted with intelligence and thoroughness.

 

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