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| Best Practices |
Passing the Buck
Mary Lowengard
07/01/2004
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Bill Gates and Warren Buffett have said they intend to leave only a small
part of their respective fortunes to their children—a position that has been
interpreted by some as laudably meritocratic and by others as shockingly
cold-hearted. John Levy, a wealth consultant in Mill Valley, Calif., is among
the latter. He takes umbrage at Buffett’s plan to leave his children “enough
money so that they feel they can do anything, but not enough to do nothing.”
Levy complains, “It says to your children that the only thing worth doing is
making money.” He adds, “What you want to do is give your children as many
options to follow their dreams as possible, and the freedom to make mistakes and
change their minds.”
 Levy’s diatribe shows the depth of feeling this issue
plumbs. Indeed, giving pat advice on setting and disbursing an inheritance is
fraught with risks, because each family has its own values and financial
exigencies. Thayer Cheatham Willis, author of Navigating the Dark Side of Wealth
and daughter of the founder of Georgia-Pacific, argues that there is no
one-size-fits-all solution when moving wealth into the hands of adult children.
“There are so many variables that it’s impossible to make a general
recommendation,” she says. Considerations abound, such as the amount of money
the parents have, and how much they intend to give. We must decide whether the
inheritance should be doled out in a lump sum or parceled out over several
years, whether it should be placed in a trust or freely gifted, and how to help
our children manage the emotional, as well as financial responsibilities that a
large sum of money can trigger.
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