Inheritance

In The Sims 2, family members and best friends inherit money on the death of a Sim. There is no inheritance in The Sims, although Sims can die. Inheritance returns in The Sims 3: Generations as a lifetime reward and in The Sims 4: Eco Lifestyle as a random phone call a Sim can receive. Proper inheritance returns in The Sims 4: Life & Death, in which Sims can designate their heirlooms and money.
==The Sims 2==
Inheritance allows family members and best friends of a deceased Sim to receive money from that Sim, and get a memory of having inherited it. However, only Sims who died from old age leave an inheritance. The amount a Sim receives is unrelated to the net worth of the deceased or the amount of family funds they had. It is also unrelated to where the recipient lives; when a Sim dies, other members of his or her household can inherit. Therefore, this is more like a death benefit than an actual inheritance. In fact, the pop-up message which announces the payouts treats them as benefits from the deceased Sim's insurance policy. Receiving an inheritance does not fulfill the want to earn some money, and the inheritance does not count toward the amount of money the Sim has earned.
How much a Sim will inherit depends on three things; the deceased Sim's aspiration level at death, the type of relationship the Sim had with the deceased, and the Sim's lifetime relationship with the deceased. A Sim who dies in platinum or gold aspiration will leave behind more than one who dies in green. All other things being equal, a spouse will get more than a child, who will get more than a grandchild, who will get more than a friend. Finally, the lifetime relationship determines what percentage of the possible bequest the Sim will get. The deceased Sim's relationship with the beneficiary does not affect how much the beneficiary receives.
With Seasons or later, Sims can transfer items to others by giving them as gifts, and this can be an indirect way to transfer funds. As long as the inventory feature is present, this can also be done by using cheats to make a Sim selectable and having that Sim put items into inventory. While this can be used as a form of inheritance, it's at the discretion of the player, and is separate from the bequests that are generated by the game.
Inheritance base value
 	Platinum	Gold 	Green
Spouse 	$20,000 	$10,000	$5,000
Child 	$10,000 	$5,000 	$2,500
Grandchild	$2,500 	$1,250 	$625
Friend 
with Lifetime between 75-100	$1000 	$500 	$250
Friend
with Lifetime between 50-74	$500 	$250 	$125
==The Sims 3: Generations==
Inheritance is a lifetime reward in The Sims 3: Generations. It costs 30,000 lifetime happiness points and can be purchased by children and up. When purchased, it grants a large amount of money, around §30,000 - §40,000 from a "long lost relative".
==The Sims 4==
Inheritance is a random feature brought on by a phone call with Eco Lifestyle, but is properly introduced in Life & Death.
=== The Sims 4: Eco Lifestyle ===
Sims can potentially receive a phone call from any elder outside of their household that informs them a distant relative has died and left them a large sum of money. They are given the option to accept the offer without question, ask about the conditions, or refuse the offer. The first option forces the Sim to get married within seven days before they can receive their inheritance. If they do not get married, they lose out on the money. The second option rewards them with §2,500 immediately with no conditions attached, and the third one gives them nothing.
=== The Sims 4: Life & Death ===
Sims from the ages of child and up can choose objects to become heirlooms to pass down, and set up wills so that other Sims will obtain their money, heirlooms, children, etc. When a Sim passes, another will have the interaction to read the will to others and Sims can have positive or negative reactions to what items or money they will or will not inherit. 
Sims can also choose in their wills special funeral requests as well as how they want their tombstone or coffin to look.
==== Creating a Will ====
Sims can create their own wills at the Ravenwood town hall, at the computer, or by visiting the Ravenwood Family Day festival. Once created, players can select the wills inside the Sim's inventory and use it to update their will with choices, read their will to others, or to destroy it.
Within update will, players can select the desired heirlooms, preferred funeral activities, choose their desired gravestone or urn, passing on dependents to other families (children, pets, etc.), whether to donate their household Simoleons to charity or give them to a selected family member, and leave a personal note.
When choosing Simoleons to be sent to a charity or another family; players have the option to send percentages of 20%, 40%, 60%, 80%, and 100%. If the player chooses a percentage lower than 100%, they can send the remaining percentage to the other option they picked.
When leaving a personal note players can write a custom message and they can assign a certain emotion to for a desired reaction from those who will be at the will reading. However, this doesn't make all Sims react in one way; Sims with different traits can react to the will differently based on their own traits. Materialistic Sims will get mad if they don't receive any money or heirlooms, and Generous Sims won't be negatively affected by a mean last message.
==== Heirlooms ====
Heirlooms can be placed down by the ones who recieved it and have a few options:
* Call Upon Sim
* Claim Higher Value
* Pass on Heirloom to...
* Pawn Heirloom (§)
* Think about Original Owner
Sims can make their own heirlooms by clicking on any heirloom eligible object and selecting "Make Heirloom". When an object is made an heirloom, Sims can pass their heirloom onto any Sim they have a close relationship to.
==Trivia== 
*If two Sims in a household are scheduled to die on the same day, the Grim Reaper may first come for one, then come back later for the other. If this happens, the second Sim can inherit from the first, even though they will die later that day.
fr:Héritage
pt-br:Herança
Category:Game mechanics
Category:The Sims 2
Category:Generations
Category:Eco Lifestyle
Category:Life & Death