Do people really do that? Live their lives - and plan their retirement - based on the outside chance that they "might" receive an inheritance?
Do they not realize - that for any number of reasons - all of a persons assets could literally be gone in the blink of an eye?
Wow.. That's a scary concept..
Yep. And they often believe that there is a lot more value in the estate than there is. And they often forget that once money is split up between a lot of siblings and grandchildren, it doesn't go as far. And then, having fooled themselves into a tough spot - they blame everyone but themselves - greedy relatives who "bled mom dry" or "death taxes" even when the estate wasn't large enough to hit the estate tax.
In some cases, at least, it isn't quite as silly as planning your retirement around winning the lottery. There are families with significant assets. And there are families where estate planning is a serious family event with insurance and tax and estate attorneys and regular auditing of the family assets. For those families, counting on an inheritance is as sensible as counting on social security for me.
