Trust Fund Babies

The wealthy used to go to great lengths to set up trust funds that would provide amply for at least the next generation and often for future generations. Those family wealthy dynasties appear to be out of favor, according to this article from The Washington Post. They’re worried about spoiling their kids and not allowing or forcing them to make something of themselves. But, as the article points out, the facts aren’t as simple as all that.

“When vastly wealthy people say, ‘I’m not leaving my kids any money,’ it’s typically not true,” he says. Even when children don’t have immediate access to cash, they get the best schooling, housing, contacts and opportunities. “All of these are things that only rich families can do. These are all different ways of transferring wealth and influence.”

Whether having so much money is good or bad for trust-fund babies depends on how the family has prepared the kids, their personalities and how well they handle the pressures of great wealth and the fear of disinheritance. For every party girl like Paris Hilton, there’s an Ivanka Trump, who got a business degree from Wharton and has parlayed her family’s money and famous name into a thriving career. Johnson used his inheritance to launch a filmmaking career and to live, all things considered, a relatively normal life in New York. “In my case, it turned out to be a great benefit,”he says.