Multigenerational Relational Work: Preserving Family Ties Through Inheritance

• In Event: 50261 - Family Section Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): Table 9: Intergenerational Relationships

Abstract

In the province of Québec, the transfer of inheritances has been on the rise in recent years. While these changes have attracted growing interest in the topic, qualitative research documenting how this transmission takes place within families, at the level of behaviors and interactions between individuals remains scarce. Drawing on in-depth interviews conducted in Québec, Canada, this paper explores how testators preserve multigenerational family ties by transferring an inheritance, thus perpetuating their family’s history beyond life and death. Expanding on Zelizer’s concept of relational work, I show that the transfer of inheritance not only participates in defining, differentiating, and maintaining relationships between testators and their heirs but also contributes to the preservation of kinship ties across multiple generations. By transferring money given by previous generations, by bequeathing material possessions associated with their family’s history, and by adopting distribution modalities reflecting moral values cherished by family members who came before them, testators engaged in multigenerational relational work and ensured the preservation of family ties throughout time. Inheritance served as a means of preserving these ties even after death. Because multigenerational relational work influences the way wealth and assets are distributed within families, paying attention to the role of kinship is crucial in developing a comprehensive understanding of the logics driving intergenerational financial transfers.

Author

• Camille Biron-Boileau, University of Chicago