He Thinks It’s Unfair For His Younger Brother To Inherit 50% Of The Family Business Since His Brother Hasn’t Done Any Work To Build The Company

Rido - stock.adobe.com - illustrative purposes only, not the actual person
Rido - stock.adobe.com - illustrative purposes only, not the actual person

This 30-year-old man has been working for his family’s business ever since he was just 13 years old. He only took three years off from the time he was 20 to 23 years old before returning to the family business, and he’s been there ever since.

How much time he spends working each day can range from five hours to 16-hour shifts. Despite that, he averages a total of 60 to 70 hours every single week.

“Except for January and February when I’m almost totally off because of the off-season,” he explained.

His younger 22-year-old brother, on the other hand, has decided to pursue higher education and has never worked more than 10 days at the family business.

According to him, that’s because his parents “love” to spoil his younger brother – who just landed an unpaid internship in IT through his network connections.

So, he believes that, when the time comes, he should be entitled to more of the family business than his brother.

Right now, ownership is split evenly between his mother and father; meanwhile, he gets paid as an employee, even though he has various other separate bonuses and investments created for him through the company.

“Most of the decisions in the backroom are made by me, and I also take care of almost everything, such as clients, finances, web management, social media post and support, email support, driving, etc.,” he explained.

Despite that, his mother recently told him some shocking news. She claimed that, once she steps down, 50% of the business will be going to his younger brother.

Rido – stock.adobe.com – illustrative purposes only, not the actual person

He believes this is completely unfair, given his brother’s lack of work for the company. Sure, he’s fine with everything else in terms of personal assets getting equally divided. But he thinks it’s wrong to also give his brother half of the company.

“Especially because there wasn’t any help coming from my brother building the business, and there won’t be any help coming from him in the future, and he’ll still get the 50% cut at the end of the day,” he reasoned.

“I love my brother with all of my heart, but I think this is unacceptable.”

He told his mother exactly how he felt about this, too, but she just didn’t understand. Rather, she’s now furious at him for not accepting her terms.

So, he wound up telling her that if she stood by her decision, he would just leave the family business and start his own company.

“And you can do what you want with yours,” he told his mom.

Still, he can’t help but wonder if believing his younger brother doesn’t deserve 50% of the family business is really so crazy or not.

Do you think all siblings are entitled to equal shares of inheritance? Or is it different when it comes to family businesses, and one sibling has simply put in more work than another?

You can read the original post on Reddit here.

Sign up for Chip Chick’s newsletter and get stories like this delivered to your inbox.

Katharina Buczek graduated from Stony Brook University with a degree in Journalism and a minor in Digital Arts. Specializing ... More about Katharina Buczek

More About: