상속을 경험한 아들의 관점에서 본 상속재산의 분배방식과 분배정의

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to explore how surviving sons perceive a fair distribution of financial inheritance and how they appraise their own inheritance experiences from a distributive justice lens. We interviewed seven surviving sons (22-61 years old) whose father or mother had passed away between one year and three years ago and who had at least one surviving sibling during the inheritance decision process. Our thematic analysis revealed four themes. The first theme was “the principles of fair inheritance distribution.” The participants had different perspectives on a fair distribution of the financial resources such as designating the spouse as the sole heir, prioritizing the spouse, giving an equal amount to each heir or each child, allocating more to a child based on the contribution to parental caregiving or asset building, based on financial need, or prioritizing the eldest son. The second theme was “expected but unfulfilled distributive justice,” which explained why most participants experienced mild to extremely severe conflict with their siblings because they did not agree with the distribution. The third theme was “greed that threatens fair distribution; inherited assets that mean more than money.” Disputes were inevitable because of everyone’s desire for money, but the inherited resources also had symbolic meaning in addition to economic value. The last theme was “wills, early inheritance, and inheritance law that promotes distributive justice.”