Buying and Selling: Ruling on a Guardian’s Responsibility for Managing Orphans’ Inherited Wealth

Practical Laws of Islam as per the teachings of Imam Khamenei

Buying and Selling: Ruling on a Guardian’s Responsibility for Managing Orphans’ Inherited Wealth

English:

Question #1476:

The legal guardian of orphaned minors withheld the cash amount remaining from the estate of their deceased parent. He did not invest it with the banks, or in any other avenue, whereby he could have got a handsome return on the money. Should he indemnify the children? And what is the view if the guardian invested the money in some sort of business and made some unspecified amount of profit?

Answer #1476:

The guardian is not responsible for indemnifying hypothetical profits of the minor orphans’ money. However, if he had invested the money in business, all the profits made thereof belong to the children. The guardian, though, can receive only the standard wages for his work and that is if he was legally authorised to trade in the money of the children.

-Imam Khamenei, Practical Laws of Islam, Importance and Conditions of Buying and Selling