This seems kind of convoluted, and a lot for a CPA and lawyer to set up. It's also a reporting burden for your kids. Why not just keep the asset under an LLC or Trust, and never transfer it to them directly so you have no asset transfer? Instead, make them trustees or shareholders so they can benefit from it. I guess they can get fancy with it and use it as their vacation fund -- have the board meeting in Hawaii and stuff like that. |
$1M?! Peanuts! Bill Gates supposedly is leaving $10M to each of his kids but that's just BS. His daughter already owns an estate in NY and just bought a $40M apartment in NYC and go knows what else. All said and done she'll be worth $1 Bil at least when Bill is dead and gone. If your $1M thinking was inspired by people like Bill's false statements, please change. I'd structure things as follows: 1. Money enough for any level of any education they want 2. Money for their first home 3. Money for their wedding 4. Some cash 5. A trust that gives them enough money to live a good life but not enough that they don't have to work 6. Money in their kids' 529. You could just invest in their 529s and let it grow so when they have kids, they can move it to their kids' names. 7. About 20% to charity. Try to give when you are still around so you see the benefit. We are nowhere near as wealthy as you but except for 2 & 5, we will be able to do the other things. |
Why not teach them about money and values, giving back, importance of education and trust that your children will come through. |
Just don’t tell them in advance they’ll be receiving money and if they know in general how wealthy you are try to minimize how much you actually have. Spread out the payments randomly too, 300k, then 3 years later 80k, 7 years later 800k, keep ‘em guessing. |
Bill has also paid for his 3 kids’ private k-12, elite private colleges (Stanford & UChicago) and Jennifer’s med school/MPH education. |
DP here. You are so wrong. Biglaw profits per partner are through the roof for equity partners. I was making just under a million a year as a lower paid equity partner in a DC firm before retiring early close to a decade ago. Profits per equity partner at my old firm are now close to double what they were when I left. They’re raking it in, trust me. Not saying I have any regrets about leaving - I don’t - but equity partners at the major firms are making tons and tons of money. |
I wouldn’t leave less than 2/3 of my assets to my kids and their families. |
Of course! When there was swooning talk in the media about how he was going to leave them 'only' $10m, I thought he was an idiot. Not one after all. That's just for PR. In reality, each kid will end up with at least $1B through various means. |
You never know what life will bring. I would have a substantial medical account for each child that could be tapped for any medical needs except for strictly cosmetic procedures. |
Definitely pay for their education. I think what is most important is that they should have to support themselves, with no help, for the first 15 or so years post college. Once they have very established careers, I think helping to buy a house or, later, putting grandkids through college is fine. |
Just do an education trust so a few generations of grandkids can get college paid off. This way they can start life without debt, but they still need to earn their nut. |
I wouldn't call 50M an ultra high net worth. Which is what makes me inclined to think this isn't a real poster. Ultra high is multiple hundreds of millions into the billions. People with 50M know this.
Second, very, very, very few genuinely wealthy people genuinely don't believe in generational wealth. They may talk it but in reality they will leave their children very comfortably off. Generational wealth is only a modern buzzword that's no more than a few years old, preying on liberal white guilt in the DEI age. 17M per child (I'm assuming this is post tax) is unquestionably a nice sum of money. But it's not ultra high net worth. It will allow each child to own a nice 2-3M house plus another 2-3M summer house and the rest tied up in investments generating a nice income for what will be generously comfortable, affluent life. But you're not owning private jets or buying a 10M summer house on Nantucket or living in Kalorama. If you are real, in reality what will happen is you'll help each kid get launched, buy their first house, pay for the grandkids' education, and when the time comes, each kid inherits 10M while the rest is donated. It's not that complicated. See your financial planners. |
Ultra high net worth is a financial term. It is not subjective and refers to a net worth more than $30M. |
I know lots of people with family money and trust funds and plenty of them launched. Some didn't. About the same averages of the general population. |
We had no generational wealth. Three kids. One did not launch. It’s not always about the money. Again, you’re not going to die until they are well into adulthood. |