“Ms. Rinehart believed the kids weren’t fit to manage their fortune. She said none had ever held a real job, unless it was given to them by the family. ‘None of the plaintiffs (her children) has the requisite capacity or skill, nor the knowledge, experience, judgment or responsible work ethic to administer a trust in the nature of the trust in particular as part of the growing HPPL Group,’”
Love it. I wish I’d see a lot more of this even for small fortunes. Giving someone, even family, a free pass like that truly robs them of their chances to succeed.
Its essentially why I chose not to try and head my Dad’s business right out of college; I know he’d want to extend the father-son relationship, but I see no justification in why I should be trusted to run or hold top positions in a multi-milliondollar firm with 0 relevent work experience.
My boss is kind of like that with his kids, preemptively. His fortune is somewhere in the hundreds of millions but his family lives in a modest house and he gives his kids no allowance. He and his wife drive decent cars and dress pretty well, but nothing fancy. Doesn’t want anyone in the family to be corrupted by the money. I find it inspiring.
The only argument I can say is that once you know your financial future is secure, you can spend your time pursuing what you really want to do in life. Most of our decisions are based on what we can do with a heavy skew for: “does this provide a good future financially”
My maternal grandfather inherited millions from his father at around age 21. He was an only child and lost his mother at age 9.
Before his father died, a newspaperman asked the father: “How much will your son inherit?”
I always liked the answer: “I will give him enough that he can afford to do anything, but not so much that he can afford to do nothing.”
In the end, the bulk of the wealth was placed in a generation-jumping trust that my grandfather could not touch, he could only live off of the interest payments (which still paid for a pretty comfortable existence). My grandfather could distribute the trust upon his death as he saw fit, but could not touch the principal during his lifetime, save for life-threatening needs.
In the end, he had a pretty interesting and useful life, was a personal friend of Harry Truman and worked in labor arbitration under the Truman administration. I think I have a letter signed by Harry Truman to my grandfather, still. I’m not interested in selling it, but I wonder how much it is worth.
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My mother inherited a good portion of the trust when my grandfather died. Between his death and her death, she managed to spend all of it on herself. By my calculation, she went through about 6 million dollars over the course of 25 years, between spending her inheritance and and withdrawing all the equity appreciation on her several properties. That’s approximately a $20k/month burn rate, maintained over 25 years. Wow.
I saw virtually none of that money, BTW, other than to enjoy a few expensive meals when I visited her. I think she bought me a Mark Cross briefcase when I was 22 as well. I did get to watch her spend large portions of it on herself, though. I inherited exactly 0, unless you include a few things of mine that just happened to be at her place when she died. Mental illness (BPD) in a parent is not a fun thing.
While most of us hate the thought of the spoiled rich kid that gets everything handed to them, I’m sure we know of some rich kids that have advanced far in life starting on the backs of their parents, but eventually becoming something much more. The difference, just like everybody else, was good parenting.
In the case of the article, the woman is a shitty parent throughout her life, probably threw money at her kids routinely to “solve” family problems, and was surprised that her kids turned out the way they did. No sympathy for either side really, but these types of issues almost always starts with the parents.
Yea wealthy parents with good parenting and wise spending habits can actually yield stellar children. They have all the resources to hire the best teachers, provide the best learning environments, buy only the healthiest foods, etc…