Celebrity Children Who Won’t Get Their Parents’ Fortune

Just close your eyes and evoke an image of a filthily rich person who has so much of it that he may never again think of money for the remainder of their lives! And not only they – their children don’t have to worry about earning their daily buck! So, you can make their lives easy and careless – but halt, is it a good idea? What would be better – to have your children happy and relaxed or probably keep them on their toes eager to emulate you and amass a fortune of their own? The answer is not so simple, there are things to be said for each side of the issue. Looking at it one way, that’s why people go after big money: to do away with worries about bills, meals and suchlike, and wander into a restaurant without considering how much you will have to pay here. But then again, what if the money goes to spoil the kids and turn them into effete inefficient weaklings capable of nothing apart seeking pleasure? We have enough examples of that – famous guys and girls going about flaunting their riches after the best Kardashian fashion, famous for being famous. Money’s in the root of it – but whose money? Did they earn it? Nope. What they flaunt is their parents’ purses.

Consequently, there are others who, believing it’s a shame, opted not to corrupt their children and keep their earnings away from their reach. Of course it’s a decision to be taken hard, even resented – but people get away with it. Right now such children have the support and financing hey need, but they live with the awareness that by the time when their parents are gone, they should be able to stand on their own two feet.

Who are those people who made up their minds to take the risk and bypass their kids in their wills? Here are some of them.

George Lucas will pay for other children’s education

Think of the world without Star Wars and Indiana Jones franchises – no, the mind revolts instantly! That’s what we owe to the great filmmaker George Lucas, that and a lot more. Besides creating iconic movies, he found time to set up enterprises like Lucasfilm and Industrial Light and Magic which added greatly to his profits. With the man who climbed up as high as Lucas, fortune amassed during decades would come up to billions – with this money one would be almost sure that his children would be sitting pretty after he has passed away.

Lucas adopted three kids and has one more born by gestational carrier. Whatever they will be doing for living, they won’t have their father’s dough to propel them on. The world-famous filmmaker is also a renowned philanthropist. He wants all his money to go to charities. He is funding them generously now, but when it’s time for him to go, his wealth would be helping those who need education but are unable to pay the fees enter their chosen colleges and get the benefit of knowledge.

Mark Zuckerberg will fund charities

Mark Zuckerberg is known for his unpretentious lifestyle, his taste in clothes and his modest $1 salary – oh, and, of course, for being a billionaire. The well-known founder of Facebook (where you are registered too) possesses a fortune to the amount of appr. $63.3 bn, and doesn’t wear it on his sleeve for all to see. Now Zuckerberg doesn’t hang around banks checking how his accounts grow, but hands his money out freely to charities. Also, he always said that he meant to give most of his whole kit and caboodle to charities. Meanwhile, the fellow has a young kid and another one on the way. What will they say when they are old enough to understand money issues? Yet it’s some way off, and the Zuckerberg children might start getting involved in their father’s empire and get their slices of the thick pie. In this case they will be happy earning their own bucks rather than inheriting dad’s pile.

Sting will not burden his children with his fortune

Gordon Sumner is known to the world as Sting – bass player, composer, singer and bandleader, formerly of The Police, but a long time out on his own. Starting at the end of the 1970s he has been raking in money, and by now he has a fortune in millions, something like $300 of them. The members of his family are quite satisfied with this state of things, but only while he keeps breathing; at the moment Sting stops to, they lose it all. His six children are not mentioned in his will, nor will there be a trust fund set up for their support. The singer said he knew how he was going to dispose of his money – his children won’t be left needing, yet he doesn’t want them to have the whole pile – in his own words – like “albatrosses around their necks.” They have settled down to their own devices needing no financial backup from his wealth, and he believes it should stay like this with everyone earning and not living off Sting’s estate.

Warren Buffett will give away to charitable causes

Here we have one of the richest and most successful investors not only in the US, but in the world, working away for money for years and years, through the Buffett Partnership and otherwise, resulting in collecting a sum of $73.3 bn. It’s fine to be one of the globe’s greatest business magnates, but not for his three children: he could be poor for all they are going to get from it. Back in 2006 the financier made it public that 99% of his affluence was going away to charitable institutions because he wasn’t going for dynastic wealth – considering how many people in the world have to get by with highly insufficient budgets.

Buffett is a typical filthily-rich man: he doesn’t care for money itself that much, it’s the game that matters. Bucks don’t provide so much excitement as the business part of the dealings that brings the dough rolling in. Wealth is just the outcome of the fun.

Ted Turner wants charities to prosper

The founder of the CNN cable TV network and WTBS, media mogul and businessman Ted Turner has done so much during his lifetime that it is simpler to site his earnings than his achievements: he is worth more than $2 bn. As a successful public figure, he is bound to hold strong opinions and he is known to be – erm – a little outspoken and rash in what he says and does so he is often referred to as “The Mouth of the South” or “Captain Outrageous.” Whatever he chooses to say, Turner’s heart is screwed on right, and he is dead set on giving. He gave away a lot of money to charity all these years, finally setting up a foundation of his own called Turner Foundation and trying to involve all his children (five in number) into charitable work, thus making it a sort of a family business. He lets them – and everybody else, incidentally – know that his fortune is going for charitable purposes and not for the super-welfare of his offspring. This dedicated businessman wants the community, not individual people, to benefit by his death.

Sir Elton John won’t have his children wallowing in money

Sir Elton John is the person all aspiring pianists would like to emulate – they go crazy thinking about is career of several decades’ hit making, selling his albums like hot cakes and enjoying a remarkable staying power surprising his fans with his incomparable musical vitality!

Reaching the mature age of 70, Sir Elton is both musically and family-wise virile, having David Furnish for a husband and Zachary and Elijah for their beloved children. The pianist is a very family-oriented man and he is all for keeping his children cozy, cared about and provided for financially after he’s pressed the piano pedals for the last time. On the other hand, he wants to make sure that they do not count heavily on his dollars and pounds and believe themselves blessed with dough for ever and ever. So he cut them off his will as an incentive for them to build their own careers and earn their own ducats.

Bill Gates will give his children a little bit of what he has

Even if you happen not to know who Bill Gates is, your PC does! He is the man at the root of Microsoft, the multinational technology company which brought him billions, and these he augmented by judicious investing. Now the business mogul is worth $88 bn and probably more; you bet he is among the richest people on this old planet. What he doesn’t do is throw away his money wantonly on unnecessary luxuries. Instead he keeps donating large sums to charitable organizations, and brings up his children (three in number) in the same vein. He believes they will never live destitute, but to ensure it he didn’t go so far as to leave them without any inheritance. His intention is to leave $10 m to each. For us mere readers it is a mountain of money, but if we stop to consider his billions, the sum doesn’t look so huge. He’s gone the way of other billionaires in writing off his wealth to charities, and his children will have to make the best of the tiny portion of his fortune ($10 m).

Michael Bloomberg will try to improve the world for his children

A famous businessman and a politician, Michael Bloomberg with his fortune spilling over the brim of $50 bn is firmly placed #10 on the list of the world’s wealthiest people. It’s a long job to recount all the business deals in which he managed to collect so much, but many people are likely to remember his political activity and his occupying the office of the Mayor of New York for three terms in a row. Bloomberg is fond of business games, handling profitable deals and seeing his wealth increase, but he is also all for channeling money into good causes. For years he has been an active philanthropist as well as a member of The Giving Pledge, a bevy of billionaires who gave pledge to donate half of their earnings to charities. So he has been donating a great amount of his money for a long time and means to do it after his passing away, too. When asked about how much of his estate will go to his children, he said that he saw supporting organizations that work for making this world a better place as the best one can do for his children to show love and care.

Gordon Ramsay will certainly help with only some of his fortune

Gordon Ramsay, restaurateur and chef, is one of those happy people who don’t need to lift a finger to keep money rolling in. He has a happy eye for business opportunities and the ability to turn most of his enterprises into hard cash. He owns – or has his hand in – dozens of restaurants, eateries, all kinds of food establishments imaginable, in many corners of the world, where a lot of famous chefs are working away on his salary. Once again, in spite of being flush and more, he claims money’s not the incentive for him – he is doing it for the fun, for the feel of the industry.

Ramsay started involving his kids into his cooking programs long ago, so we had a chance to see them smiling nicely from the screen. But that was for the audience; what faces will they make when they hear that all dad’s fortune – of which they already had a taste – will not be coming their way? Ramsay was pretty definite that so much money would spoil the kids, so he means no harm to them but seeks not to corrupt them. His agreement with his wife Tana is that the children get a 25 per cent deposit on a flat. It is not even all of the flat! There will be at least some kind of struggle for the youngest generation of the Ramsays.

Simon Cowell will have his son pave his own way

Simon Cowell is an unbelievably successful entrepreneur and producer, but he tread every step of the way to where he is now – and some of those steps weren’t easy by half. A few times Cowell came to lose everything he possessed and had to fall back on the help of people who put their trust in him and backed him up until he arrived at where he is now – making money like that’s what he had been meant to do all the time. So Cowell knows all about the ups and downs of life, and we could assume he would appreciate handouts, wouldn’t mind going back to live with his parents, and later would never want his son to travel along the same road again. No, the famous producer believes that he has to be grateful for his struggles because they braced him up and made him prepared for success. So it appears he would like his son to achieve success the way he did it. Consequently he doesn’t think of helping his son with his future career – he will have to fend for himself. According to Cowell, all of his money will be shared among charities after he’s gone. However, his son is still very young, and there’s a chance that his father will reconsider his opinion when he has grown a little.

Jackie Chan will just be watching his son’s success

These days Jackie Chan is into the venerable 60s, and it’s a bit weird to think that he has been in the movies for longer than 50 years! At his age, Chan still possesses all (well, almost all) of his abilities intact, and he is perfectly able to repeat his tricks, show martial art and movement which came together to put him on the top. Yet the actor is universally admired not only for his skills in martial arts, but for his acting talents including comedy parts too! With a good deal of milestone movies under his belt, both in Asia and in the United States, he is one of the brightest stars in the Hollywood skies (and, incidentally, the richest ones). He has a daughter who lives with her mother, so very little is known about her, and a son who followed suit and went to make a Hollywood career. He is also an aspiring singer. Chan must be glad that his son is blazing a path for himself and may not need his dad’s financial support. He stated firmly he is not going to provide for his son in his will. (Probably it will be different with his out-of-marriage daughter, but there’s no saying what role she plays in his life and he in hers.)