Shutting Out the Kids From the Family Fortune

Posted: 10 May 2011 09:04 AM PDT

Want to avoid raising spoiled kids?

Consider the Wellington Burt School of Wealthy Parenting.

: Associated Press; Wellington R. Burt

Wellington R. Burt was a rich timber baron from Saginaw, MI. He died in 1919 with a multi-million-dollar fortune – one of America's largest at the time.

Yet rather than risk messing up his kids lives with a huge inheritance, he created an unusual will.

He stated that his fortune would be distributed to the family – but only 21 years after his grand-children’s death.

His children and grandchildren weren't entirely deprived. Burt gave his “favorite son” $30,000 a year but the rest of his children got allowances roughly equal to those he gave his cook and chauffeur, according to the News.

“I’m pretty sure he didn’t like his family back then,” said Christina Cameron, an heir and a great-great-great grandchild of Burt's.

Now that it's 21 years since the death of the last grandchild, the fortune is finally being turned over to Cameron and 11 others, including three great-grandchildren, seven great-great grandchildren and another great-great-great grandchild. The fortune is valued at more than $100 million. (She'll get a little more than $2.6 million, since those further up the family tree get more under a master agreement).

Saginaw County Chief Probate Judge Patrick McGraw said the estate is “one of the most complicated research projects” he’s faced in his 12-year career in Saginaw.

Of course, skipping a generation is not unusual among rich parents who want to send a message to their kids (but somehow not their grand-kids). Generation-skipping trusts and other estate-planning structures have been around for ages.

But Burt's will takes kid-skipping to a new, almost punitive level. Who knows, maybe his kids and grand-kids were better off for the lack of inheritance, or maybe the money would have allowed them to lead fuller, happier lives. We'll never know. It would be interesting to compare the lives of his new heirs with those who were shut out.

What do you think of Burt's School of Parenting?

Will Women Ever Outnumber Men Among the Ultra-Rich?

Posted: 09 May 2011 10:18 AM PDT

Women dominate more and more of the economy, from employment to educational degrees and wage increases.

: Associated Press; Kirsty Bertarelli

Now, they're starting to gain ground in one of the last hold-outs of male dominance: rich lists.

Britain's Sunday Times Rich List of the 1,000 richest people in the U.K. included a record number of women — 105. That's up from 99 in 2010. All of the women have fortunes of $114 million or more.

At first glance, this is a sign of the growing economic power of women and women-owned businesses. Among those topping the list of rich women are Dame Mary Perkins, the co-founder of Specsavers, and Britain’s sixth richest woman worth $1.88 billion, J.K. Rowling, the empress of all things Harry Potter.

Yet women still only account for 10% of the rich. And most of their wealth came from divorce, marriage or inheritance. The richest woman in the U.K. is Kirsty Bertarelli, a songwriter and former Miss U.K whose husband founded the Serono biotech company.

Ranking number two is Charlene de Carvalho, the Heinken beer heiress with $6.8 billion. Lady Green, wife of retail magnate Philip Green, ranks third, also with $6.8 billion.

Divorcees round out most of the rest of the list — from Slavicia Ecclestone, the former wife of the Formula One boss Bernie Ecclestone, to Irana Abramovich, the ex of Roman Abramovich, who has 155 million pounds.

An article in the London Telegraph explains that one reason for the rise in rich U.K. women is that London has become the "divorce capital of the world," since a series of court rulings granted large awards to the wives of rich foreign citizens living in London.

Still, the pattern is fairly similar in the U.S., where the number of self-made women on the Forbes list also remains at about 10%, with the vast majority of the other rich women making their wealth from inheritance, divorce or spouses.

Do you think women will ever outnumber men on the rich lists? Why not?