In the Biblical book of Ecclesiastes, the teacher Koheleth argues that (almost) everything is meaningless. But one passage from the Book of Ecclesiastes stood out to me today as potentially rectified by sage legal advice from an estate planner:
I hated all the things I had toiled for under the sun, because I must leave them to the one who comes after me. And who knows whether that person will be wise or foolish? Yet they will have control over all the fruit of my toil into which I have poured my effort and skill under the sun. This too is meaningless. So my heart began to despair over all my toilsome labor under the sun. For a person may labor with wisdom, knowledge and skill, and then they must leave all they own to another who has not toiled for it. This too is meaningless and a great misfortune. Ecclesiastes 2:18-21 (New International Version).
Or maybe this is an early argument against the rule against perpetuities?
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