The Charles Dickens-Estate Planning Interface

The following excerpt is from John Authers, Passing on wealth, Financial Times, July 9, 2007:

The Victorians had some lessons for the very rich who have been produced by the wealth-creation of the past decade.

The crucial question is whether the new breed of philanthropists will turn into a new generation of Mrs Pardiggles.

Mrs Pardiggle is one of the more loathsome characters in Charles Dickens’ Bleak House, the tragic story of a contested will. It is arguably literature’s greatest ever warning of the hazards of inadequate estate planning.

As well as lawyers, Dickens was also deeply sceptical about philanthropists. He divided them into two classes: “One, the people who did a little and made a great deal of noise; the other, the people who did a great deal and made no noise at all.” Mrs Pardiggle is in the former group.

Special thanks to Prof. Joel C. Dobris of the University of California-Davis for bringing this article to my attention.