Bill Gates Says His Children Will Inherit "Less Than 1" Of His Fortune
Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates intends to leave his children less than 1 per cent of his fortune as he believes they should succeed on their own instead of inheriting all that their father created. On the 'Figuring Out With Raj Shamani' podcast recently, Mr Gates said the choices made by wealthy families about their legacy mostly depended on their own values.
"Everybody gets to decide on that," the Microsoft co-founder said, adding, in his situation, his children "got a great upbringing and education but less than 1% of the total wealth."
"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," Mr Gates said.
Mr Gates shares three children with his ex-wife Melinda French - Rory Gates, Jennifer Gates Nassar, and Phoebe Gates.
The 69-year-old told Mr Shamani that he did not want his children to be "overshadowed by the incredible luck and good fortune [their father] had," but rather to be "significant" in their own right.
He added that he did not want his children to "ever be confused about your support for them and your love for them."
He believed it was important to communicate one's attitude towards children early on about giving them "incredible opportunities."
The "highest calling for these resources is to go back to the neediest through the foundation," he said.
According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Mr Gates is worth $155 billion, and 1 per cent is $1.55 billion. Although the three Gates children might not possess as much wealth as their father, their assets would probably put them among the richest one per cent of the world population.
Mr Gates is not the sole tech billionaire who plans not to leave his vast fortune only for his children.
Several prominent tech titans, such as the late Steve Jobs of Apple and Jeff Bezos of Amazon, prioritised philanthropy over passing on wealth from one generation to the next.
Steve Jobs' widow, philanthropist Laurene Powell Jobs, said her three children would not receive the billions she inherited from her husband.
He "wasn't interested" in creating a legacy fortune, despite his estimated $7 billion net worth at the time of his death in 2011, Ms Jobs told the New York Times in 2020.
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