Strategic Parent Meets Detached Child? Parental Intended Bequest Division and Support From Children

Abstract

Abstract While the literature shows that elderly parents may use bequests to reward children who provide them with time support, there is limited evidence on whether younger, less needy parents base their intended bequest division on alternative forms of support from children. This study uses data from the June 2018 Singapore Life Panel and focuses on a sample of 4,125 adult children and their middle-aged and older parents. From family fixed-effects estimation, I find that parents intend to leave larger bequest shares to coresident children and to children who provide greater material support. Parents also intend to bequeath more to children in whom they confide frequently, while children in whom they confide rarely receive more bequests only if they provide greater material support. The results suggest that parents may interpret physical and emotional proximity to children as signs of filiality for which they may reward them, while detached children may earn such rewards through material support. This study demonstrates the existence of coresidence-for-bequest and money-for-bequest exchanges between adult children and their middle-aged and older parents. These exchanges may translate into future caregiving-for-bequests when parents become elderly, and may thus have broader implications for both individual and societal well-being.