What would you do if tomorrow you found out that you had inherited an unexpected fortune? What problems would it solve for you? What problems would it create? How would a surprise inheritance affect your life?

There was a wealthy bachelor from Portugal named Luis Carlos de Noronha Cabral da Camara. By our standards, that’s a long name. Luis had inherited a large amount of money which he spent on motorcycles, shooting, and drinking. The rest he wasted, as the old joke goes.

Being a bachelor, he didn’t have anyone to leave his fortune to, so he picked the names of 70 random strangers from a Portuguese phone book and left them a share in his estate. After his premature death at age 42, many of his heirs thought they were being scammed when they received their unexpected inheritance. (1)

Ca…