How to motivate your child if you are wealthy

According to Sharlene Goff, The Wealth generation game, Financial Times, July 5, 2008:

Thousands of children of successful entrepreneurs and professionals are growing up with enough wealth around them to support them for the rest of their lives. Wealth managers say there can be little incentive for these people to go to university and find employment when they know they are going to inherit a fortune.

Yet most parents want their children to make their own way no matter how big their potential inheritance. * * *

Some parents believe their children are entitled to their wealth but question when and how to pass it on, while others – typically the more entrepreneurial – do not believe their children should benefit and plan to give most of their money away. * * *

Charrington says as a general trend the age at which children inherit is being pushed upwards. “You don’t tend to get children aged 18, 21, even 25, being given significant wealth,” he says. “We are seeing clients wanting to push it to 30-plus.”

The idea behind this is to motivate children to embark on their own careers and form goals before they receive the windfall.

Also, parents tend to prefer their children to be married, or at least in a stable relationship, before they inherit.

Special thanks to Joel Dobris (Professor of Law, UC Davis School of Law) for bringing this article to my attention.