Assume Ariel and Burt marry and have two children, Charlie and Denise. Charlie and Denise marry their spouses and Charlie has one daughter (Eliza) and Denise has two sons (Faustino and Geraldo). Then Charlie and Denise both die in a plane crash.

Burt also dies and leaves sizable assets to Ariel. When she makes her will, Ariel has two options for leaving a bequest for her grandchildren. She leaves her $2 million in cash to her grandchildren. Under a per stirpes distribution, Eliza would take $1 million and Faustino and Geraldo would take $500,000 each. That is, the $2 million is split by the two parts of Ariel and Burt's family - Charlie and Denise. In a per capita distribution, each of the three grandchildren would take $666,666.00, or equal shares per grandchild regardless of who their parents were.

In theory, Ariel and Burt would probably have divided their estates equally between Charlie and Denise had they survived. Does a per capita distribution simply reward people who have more children?

Which system is better or more fair?