{"id":6424,"date":"2026-10-10T03:45:21","date_gmt":"2026-10-10T03:45:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vaultinsider.top\/?p=6424"},"modified":"2026-10-10T03:45:21","modified_gmt":"2026-10-10T03:45:21","slug":"the-question-billionaire-and-millionaire-parents-dread-and-what-happens-when-they-dodge-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vaultinsider.top\/?p=6424","title":{"rendered":"The question billionaire and millionaire parents dread, and what happens when they dodge it"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/fortune.com\/img-assets\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/GettyImages-1213214987-e1791493964748.jpg?w=2048\" \/><\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s a question wealthy parents dread, and it\u2019s not coming from activists asking them about their tax returns.<\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Jessica McGawley, a consultant who\u2019s worked with high-net-worth families for nearly two decades, told <em>Fortune<\/em> that she has to explain to clients that their children are not \u201cbeing greedy or rude\u201d by suddenly asking \u201cAre we rich?\u201d after noticing their family has more than one house.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cHow a parent feels comfortable talking about sex and death is also how they feel comfortable with money,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As the scions of wealthy families anticipate the $124 trillion Great Wealth Transfer\u2014the sum Cerulli Associates projects will change hands in the U.S. through 2048\u2014they\u2019re often unprepared to handle their inheritance because their families haven\u2019t talked with them about money and how to manage it. McGawley founded her firm Dallington to address this issue, based on her experience of parents having put together \u201ca watertight paper document that explains everything\u201d but failing to actually talk through it with their kids.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cSuccessful families are very good at preparing wealth for the children. They are not good at preparing the children for the wealth,\u201d McGawley said. \u201cSo if you spend all this time and all this energy preparing your wealth for your children, but don\u2019t prepare them for what they\u2019re receiving and why, you\u2019ve missed the point.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A Fidelity study last year found the majority of parents age 55 or older with at least $500,000 in investable assets haven\u2019t talked to their kids about inheriting money, with more than half (52%) reporting they haven\u2019t communicated their net worth and 68% reporting they haven\u2019t told their kids what they\u2019ll inherit or if they\u2019ll inherit at all. About a third (35%) said they don\u2019t want their children to know how much they\u2019ll get.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But parents who share completed plans with their kids are more than three times as likely to feel confident in their planning, Fidelity separately found in a 2026 survey of 654 married or partnered adults age 55 or older with a net worth of at least $500,000 and at least one adult child. But only 21% have communicated a completed estate plan to their adult children.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Reasons why they don\u2019t<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">McGawley has worked with more than 150 ultra high net worth individuals, with most of her clients falling into the centimillionaire bucket. She said most parents worry that letting their kids know the extent of their wealth will make them entitled.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThere\u2019s this fear that if your kids know how much money that you have as a family, that they\u2019re going to basically give up studying, give up motivation, won\u2019t be bothered\u2014basically have a meal ticket for the rest of their life,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">She said what \u201cchanges things\u201d is heirs learning the upsides and downsides that accompany their wealth and how to build an identity outside of inheriting it.\u00a0<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>What happens when they don\u2019t<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">When the ultra-rich avoid telling their kids how much they\u2019re worth, the kids may find out from outsiders before they\u2019re ready, and the shock can strain family relationships over the long term, according to McGawley.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The teenage daughter of a billionaire family McGawley worked with didn\u2019t know the scale of her wealth until she started college, when her new friends looked her up online and found out her family\u2019s net worth. Half of them asked her to buy them things or to get internships at her dad\u2019s company, and the other half criticized her for \u201cnot donating all of her inheritance to Gaza.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThere\u2019s been no preparation time, and then she\u2019s met with these extreme responses to her wealth, which she hasn\u2019t really even understood,\u201d McGawley said. \u201cSo really, what you find is somebody wanting to just stick their head in the sand and shut their door.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But there can also be more serious consequences, especially when parents don\u2019t involve their kids in succession talks early on. They might pick one sibling to take over the business and leave another feeling disinherited, or refuse to hand over control of the business at all, fracturing family relationships.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIf they are just being handed roles, you\u2019re going to have problems,\u201d McGawley said about heirs. \u201cMoney is very emotional.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">She said philanthropy can be \u201ca real hotbed for conflict\u201d because the parents might have donated to the same children\u2019s charity or water aid group for 20 years, but their kids want to donate to one \u201cthat feels more pertinent at the age that they\u2019re at,\u201d like a women\u2019s rights group. Fewer than half (47%) of Americans with at least $3 million in investable assets surveyed by Bank of America believe the next generation is ready to take on family philanthropic causes, down from 55% in 2024.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThis idea that we can\u2019t survive differences within family needs to be addressed because if you\u2019re going to be a family that works together, inherits together, you need to be able to make decisions together, and you need to be able to manage difficult conversations,\u201d McGawley said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But when rich parents do talk to their kids about money and its responsibilities, it can turn out well. David Munson, 67, is a fourth-generation heir of his Texas family\u2019s stock and oil wealth and told <em>Fortune <\/em>his father talked openly about finances\u2014but also made the kids sell eggs to the neighbors to earn their own money. His father worked as a stockbroker in the 1960s and in the 1970s sold oil and gas leases in western Colorado that he won in the federal government\u2019s lease lottery. He eventually left \u201cseveral hundred million dollars\u201d to Munson and his siblings.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cHe taught us to be sensible and productive, and also think about passing down wealth to our kids,\u201d Munson said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Munson said that today, his four adult children each get $10,000 a month from their trusts, which lets\u00a0 them pursue their passions without worrying about working.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIt\u2019s important for parents to both talk to their kids about money, but also encourage them to get some work experience, but not expect them to live a poor life growing up,\u201d Munson said. \u201cThere can be a lot of blessings to a kid having enough wealth to do things they want to do instead of having to get a job just because they need the money.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>#question #billionaire #millionaire #parents #dread #dodge<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>There\u2019s a question wealthy par&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6425,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[274,479,149,9521,4345,2466,6340,81],"class_list":["post-6424","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-finance-news","tag-billionaire","tag-billionaires","tag-dodge","tag-dread","tag-millionaire","tag-parents","tag-question","tag-wealth"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.1 - 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