“Money won’t make success; the freedom to make it will,” said Nelson Mandela. For numerous billionaires across the world, money was not a given; they began with nothing and worked hard enough to now own everything. For their families and friends, they have made sure money is never a factor to consider when living life. But as important as financial stability is to a person, so is the will to do something on their own, create something of their own. And that is one thing the wealthy seem to understand, since they seem to be implementing it in their own children as well.
An estimated $84 trillion is expected to be passed down in what has been deemed the largest-ever transfer of intergenerational wealth. The 42-year-old’s $199 billion fortune is connected to his 13% ownership of the company’s stock. However, he and his wife Priscilla Chan intend to give away 99% of their Meta shares. Shortly after the birth of their first child in 2015, the couple announced their plans to use the funds to promote equality, medical innovations and education through the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, which has committed more than $7.2 billion in grants since beginning in 2015. After the death of the famous founder, she inherited a fortune worth $14.9 billion but is not planning on giving it away to her three children. Despite owning a fortune worth $109 billion, he doesn’t intend to pass on his wealth to his two children. Instead in 2025, he announced that his company will eventually be given to a trust intended to finance Bloomberg Philanthropies, his charitable foundation. The billionaire has also previously advocated against wealthy families hiring their own children, stating in 2016 that he would never let his daughters work for his company as it would be unfair to other employees. Bill Gates and Paul Allen founded Microsoft in 1975 after Gates dropped out of Harvard University. Through years of effort, the now 70-years-old has amassed an estimated fortune of $108.5 billion. Alongside Buffett and his former wife Melinda French Gates, the Microsoft co-founder helped establish the Giving Pledge in 2010, a campaign urging the wealthy to give away the majority of their wealth during their lifetime.
From Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg to Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard, some have decided against leaving their fortunes to their children, according to a recent report by Observer. “I’m not interested in legacy wealth buildings, and my children know that,” she told The New York Times in 2020. “When I die, the foundation inherits the company,” said Bloomberg during a summit in September 2023. “They, because of the tax laws, will have to get rid of it, sell it someplace or other over the first five years,” he added. The billionaire has long maintained that his kids will be receiving only a “miniscule portion” of his wealth and will “have to find their own way. In a 2017 Reddit AMA, Gates reportedly noted that “leaving kids massive amounts of money is not a favor to them” and revealed he became inspired to not leave an inheritance to his children after reading about Warren Buffett ’s thoughts on the topic in a 1986 Fortune article.
In the next two decades, the heirs of the world’s richest are set to become even richer. However, not all billionaires seem to be on board. Here’s a look at the who’s and who’s of the world that decided not to offer their wealth to their kids. Mark Zuckerberg started Facebook, now Meta Platforms, from a dorm room at Harvard University. Laurene Powell Jobs is the wife of late Apple co-founder Steve Jobs. “Steve wasn’t interested in that. If I live long enough, it ends with me. Michael Bloomberg is the founder of Bloomberg L.P., an empire that constitutes his eponymous media businesses and the Bloomberg Terminal, a financial data service. This is despite him having given away most of his Microsoft stakes to fund his philanthropic Gates Foundation. Still, his three children do not expect to receive much of it.
