When Claire (all first names have been changed at the request of interviewees), 24, received a €150,000 gift, she thought back to her university courses on the sociology of money. "The value of a sum depends on whether you receive it as a gift, inherit it, or earn it through your salary. I absolutely recognized myself in that idea," said the former student at Université Paris Dauphine-PSL.
Now working as a consultant in artificial intelligence, the twenty-something felt that the windfall she received in 2025 "doesn't really belong to her." The money is ultimately meant to help her family buy a second home. "My parents gave my brother the same amount. The idea is that we'll have joint ownership of the house so we won't have to pay taxes on it during the inheritance." But for now, it simply sits in Claire's bank account. "I could spend it," she explained, "but I don't feel like I have the right. An acquaintance of mine used a gift to travel around the world. I couldn't do that, I feel like I have a huge privilege and it makes me uncomfortable."
"Inheritances and gifts expose the true nature of inequality, which is why it can be so hard to accept them," said Nicolas Frémeaux, professor of economics at the Université de Rouen-Normandie. The issue, he pointed out, is especially sensitive as France approaches the so-called 'great transfer': Over the next 15 years, €9 trillion will be handed down from the baby boomer generation to their heirs.
