Quote - LostinSpaceman, there is a benefit. Many times I have changed the parenting in this way and when going through various poses, trying to find the right one, I've seen the sword move away from the figure.  It is still parented, even though it moves away from the figure, the sword will still follow the movement of whatever body part I parented it to.

That would only happen if it was improperly parented to the figure on a body part other than the hand unless it's center was improperly moved away from where it should be in the joint editor. If that happens, the first place to look is in the joint editor to see if the props center is truely centered where it should be. Also, if your reparenting a prop that is a CR2 without exporting the geometry and reimporting it as a prop, the original CR2 is still affecting it even if you parented it to a different hand.