Sociologists hold divergent views of the logic governing the acquisition and transfer of wealth. Both the value and nature of assets shape an owner's conception of her rights and obligations, specifically toward relatives and friends. Individuals make many decisions in building their estates as well as in disposing of them during their lifetimes or at the end of their lives by testament or otherwise.

Anthropologists often assert that neither material nor symbolic objects have intrinsic value. Rather, they are a mere intrinsic construct that individuals elaborate to justify the status they claim to occupy in the socioeconomic and the cultural ladder of their society. Economists, alternatively, often assess how various social groups select distinct types of assets and how these assets are distributed in an individual ...