Bill Gates Reveals His Kids Will Inherit “Less Than 1” Of His Wealth
Bill Gates has three children with his former wife Melinda French - Rory Gates, Jennifer Gates Nassar, and Phoebe Gates.
Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates plans to leave his kids less than 1 per cent of his wealth because he believes they should be able to make it on their own rather than inheriting all that their dad has made. In an interview on the ‘Figuring Out With Raj Shamani’ podcast recently, Mr Gates stated the decisions that affluent families make regarding their legacy were largely based on their own values.
“Everyone gets to choose on that,” the Microsoft co-founder stated, continuing, in his case, his kids “had a wonderful upbringing and education but less than 1% of the overall wealth.”
“It’s not a dynasty, I’m not asking them to run Microsoft. I want to provide them an opportunity to have their own income and success,” Mr Gates stated.
Mr Gates has three children with his former wife Melinda French – Rory Gates, Jennifer Gates Nassar, and Phoebe Gates.
The 69-year-old explained to Mr Shamani that he did not want his kids to be “overshadowed by the incredible luck and good fortune [their father] had,” but to be “significant” themselves.
He went on to say that he did not wish his children to “ever be confused about your support for them and your love for them.”
He felt it was essential to express one’s attitude towards children early in life regarding providing them with “incredible opportunities.”
The “highest calling for these resources is to go back to the neediest through the foundation,” he said.
As per the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Mr Gates is valued at $155 billion, and 1 per cent is $1.55 billion. Even if the three children of the Gates family may not have as much money as their father, the wealth they had would likely leave them in the richest one percent of the entire world population.
Mr. Gates is not the only tech billionaire who does not intend to leave his enormous wealth solely to his children.
A number of other high-profile tech moguls, including the deceased Steve Jobs of Apple and Jeff Bezos of Amazon, placed a priority on philanthropy over intergenerational passing on of wealth.
Steve Jobs’ widow, philanthropist Laurene Powell Jobs, stated that her three children would not inherit the billions she received from her husband.
He “wasn’t interested” in making a legacy fortune, even as his estimated $7 billion net worth at death in 2011, Ms Jobs said to the New York Times in 2020.
