Bill Gates, the 69-year-old Microsoft co-founder, said his children will inherit only 1 per cent of his total wealth.
He has three children from his 27-year marriage to his former wife, Melinda Gates: Daughter Jennifer (28), son Rory (25), and youngest daughter Phoebe (22).
Even though a mere 1 per cent of his $155 billion wealth amounts to a whopping $1.55 billion, the real question is why the Microsoft co-founder chose what he did and what he plans to do with the remaining.
Why would Bill Gates leave 1% of his wealth to his children?
At Raj Shamani’s podcast, Bill Gates said his children “got a great upbringing and education,” but he would give them less than 1% of the total wealth because he “wants to give them a chance to have their own earnings and success.”
Bill Gates told Shamani that affluent families base their inheritance decisions on their personal beliefs, and in his case, “my kids got a great upbringing and education but less than one per cent of the total wealth because I decided it wouldn’t be a favour to them.”
“It’s not a dynasty, I’m not asking them to run Microsoft. I want to give them a chance to have their own earnings and success.”
Gates said he wanted his children to be “significant” in their own right and not “overshadowed by the incredible luck and good fortune [their father] had.”
“You don’t want your kids to ever be confused about your support for them and your love for them. So I do think explaining early on your philosophy: that you’re going to treat them all equally and that you’re gonna give them incredible opportunities, but that the highest calling for these resources is to go back to the neediest through the foundation,” he added.
This is not the first time the Microsoft co-founder has shared his intent of not leaving his entire wealth to his three children. He had earlier called it a “mistake” to give all of his riches to his children.
Previously he told the Daily Mail that he would be gifting his children $10 million each. “I definitely think leaving kids massive amounts of money is not a favour to them.”
What will happen to Bill Gates $155 billion wealth?
Bill Gates had previously announced that most of his $155 billion wealth would go to charity.
At a TED conference in Canada in 2014, Gates announced that his vast fortune would go to the family’s foundation—the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the world’s largest private charity.
The Gates, along with a few other billionaires, created a Giving Pledge in 2010 encouraging the ultra-wealthy to donate the majority of their wealth to philanthropic causes.
