A legacy is something that is left or passed on to other people.
Legacy is a term derived from the Latin word legātum . In everyday language, the idea refers to the material or symbolic elements that a person leaves to his successors .
The legacy can be associated with an inheritance . It is about what an individual transmits to other subjects, generally his descendants , disciples , apprentices , etc. In some cases this transmission is voluntary and concrete, although the legacy can also be established through someone's example and ethical values.
For example: « Social commitment is the greatest legacy that my father has left me» , «When the years pass, this government will be remembered for the poverty it left us as a legacy» , «The writer's family has donated his legacy to the National Library » .
Examples of legacy
Suppose a football technical director works for eight years at a club. When he finally leaves his position, journalists highlight the legacy that the coach leaves in the institution, notable in issues such as a certain way of playing, a commitment to professionalism and the numerous footballers he helped train.
A restaurant , meanwhile, can be a father's legacy to his children. This man opened the store and worked there throughout his life. When he dies, his children take over and take over as owners.
An inheritance can be called a legacy.
The concept in law
On a legal level, the legacy is a provision that allows a person to order the transfer, once his or her death occurs, of one or more assets to a beneficiary (who is called a legatee ). This decision must be respected by the heirs .
Another name by which legacy is known in the field of law is manda . This act must be carried out by the person who wishes to grant a defined part of their assets to a third party and must record their will in their will . It is important to understand that these are individual assets and not parts of the total assets.
In addition to the disposition, this name is given to the assets that are the subject of it: in other words, it is also said that the beneficiaries (or legatees) receive a legacy . In general, legatees enjoy a significantly smaller number of rights than heirs when it comes time to administer the inheritance and defend it.
This difference in rights can be seen, for example, in cases where a lawsuit takes place: unlike heirs, legatees cannot represent the hereditary assets in the process. Another right that the beneficiaries of a legacy do not receive is to accrue .
The right to increase is known as the power that heirs receive to increase their inheritance by means of a portion of that which corresponded to another heir who, for certain reasons, has renounced theirs. When a case like this occurs, said portion must be distributed among the other heirs.
History of legacy as inheritance
The legacy in this framework has a long history . Already in the book of Genesis of the Bible, the legacies that Abraham made to his natural children are narrated. The Hebrew prophet Ezekiel, on the other hand, speaks of the prince's disposal of his property to one of his servants. It also mentions that the Hebrews had permission to delegate their inherited goods to foreigners, although they could only use them in the year of Jubilee.
At that time, inherited assets could not be disposed of with complete freedom . Parents, for example, could not use their properties in perpetuity except taking into account that after their death they would belong to their children.