In our last article, we warned you that your inheritance from Uncle Johnny might not be such a good thing after all. Sure, who’s going to complain about inheriting a home overlooking the beach or a bank account filled with cash? But remember you’ll likely get stuck paying tax on it.

And that’s not all. There’s another consideration that many people overlook and it could have a far greater impact on what you get at the end.

A relative’s estate is not just composed of that person’s assets. Take, for example, the case of a home. What if they haven’t paid taxes for the past 5 years or what if they took out a loan from the bank and haven’t yet paid it back?

When calculating the estate, you have to consider both the assets and the debts. You need to know what financial obligations they had to others. This is why the inventário, or inventory process, is so important. And it’s yet another reason why legal and financial due diligence is so important.

You might have a legal right to the estate, but is it worth hiring legal counsel and appearing in the inventário when the estate owes more money than it has to distribute? Probably not, particularly if the net amount is zero plus your expenses.

Before anything, you’ll want to ensure you have a complete picture of the estate. Although it’s hard to imagine, you might actually be better off doing nothing at all. At least, it’s worth thinking it through.