Estate Planning

Competent Children Don't Need an Inheritance

By Hull and Hull LLP

Chinese real-estate tycoon, Yu Pengnian, announced this past April that he was donating the last $500 million of his fortune to his charitable foundation on philanthropy. He was asked by a reporter, whether his children were angry about his donations and responded by stating: 'They didn't oppose this idea, at least not in public.'

|It is not uncommon for billionaires to donate their fortune. For instance, Warren Buffet and Bill Gates started a campaign called "The Giving Pledge." At that time, they had four billionaires pledge to give away half of their fortune upon their death.  Now there are 40. My colleague, Nadia Harasymowycz, recently blogged on this topic, which can be found here: Leaving it all to Charity – A Good Plan or an Estate Litigator's dream.

The idea of giving away your fortune is a strong shift from the traditional idea of passing down your wealth, from generation to generation. Why this switch in estate planning? Yu stated: 'If my children are competent, they don't need my money. If they're not, leaving them a lot of money is only doing them harm.'

Yu's message to wealthy families put simply: 'Too many wealthy parents focus on preventing their children from failing. But in doing so, they also deprive their children of the joys of self-made success.'

Thank you for reading,

Rick Bickhram

Full post as published by Toronto Estate Law Blog on August 31, 2010 (boomark / email).