Parents are cleverly employing the recent surge in apartment prices as a way to keep their children devoted to them. Many children have found that just being a good son or daughter is their ticket to a better house and a greater monthly income, while parents enjoy love from their children and avoid paying a huge amount of taxes on their real estate. Some financial institutions like Woori Bank have swiftly moved to take advantage of the trend as a marketing strategy and encourage parents to sign contracts with their children for filial devotion in return for a healthy inheritance. One Woori Bank employee said “A filial devotion contract” is not the outcome of affectionless family relationships, but is part of an effort to resolve the wealth inheritance issue within families in a rational way.

A retiree residing in Seoul clinched a filial loyalty contract with his son when transferring the ownership of an apartment in Gangnam -- where apartment prices are especially exorbitant. The contract states that if his son turns a blind eye to his parents' needs or bickers with siblings over money, the inheritance will be voided and his son will even have to pay interest. He said that he gave the property to his children in advance to reduce the burden of the inheritance tax adding, “It is not a legally-binding contract, but I just don’t want to be mistreated by my children later.”

Choi, a doctor with his own practice, forks over a pile of W500,000 (US$1=W930) to his daughters-in-law whenever they visit him. He also tells his children that he will give each a regular allowance, and later, hand over the lion’s share of his property to the one who has increased the allowances to a bigger fortune than the others. Choi said that after the announcement, his daughters-in-law visit him every weekend.

One salary woman told of a “pregnancy project” she has embarked on recently -- five years after getting married. From the early days of her marriage she insisted that she was not going to have a child, but something changed her mind: an apartment in Gangnam waiting for her if she only has a baby. If the couple wanted to buy a 30-pyeong (one pyeong=3.3 square meters) apartment in an affluent area, like the one her mother-in-law is offering up for the trade, it would take 15 years of hard work from her and her husband, she estimates. “I just realized that swallowing my pride, listening to my mother-in-law, and having this child is actually the best road to successful personal wealth management.”

One Shinhan Bank employee says, “Even couples that have been standoffish to their in-laws suddenly transform into loving children when they crumble under the high apartment costs, it’s something I see all the time.”

(englishnews@chosun.com )