Whoopi Goldberg reveals who will inherit her massive $60 million fortune
At a time when many high net-worth individuals are rethinking whether to leave their fortunes to their kids, Whoopi Goldberg's daughter Alexandrea Martin will inherit her millions. Goldberg welcomed Martin with her first husband Alvin Martin.
In May, she explained on the show The View how she feels that children learn by what they see. "My mother worked her behind off and so that's why I feel the way I feel and I'm leaving my kid everything that I have," she said.
In recent times, billionaires and celebrities are increasingly stepping away from what once seemed to be an obvious choice-- leaving your kids with a massive trust fund. Now, celebrities are often heard talking about the importance of hard work and the treacherous road to success. Some celebrities even bar their kids from leading the lavish lives they lead.
Gordon Ramsay once famously shared how he doesn't allow his kids to come with them in first class. "They haven’t worked anywhere near hard enough to afford that. At that age, at that size, you’re telling me they need to sit in first class? No, they do not. We’re really strict on that," he said. Jeff Goldblum on the other hand, believes that it's important to teach kids the value of money.
"I'm not going to do it for you. And you're not going to want me to do it for you," the actor said on iHeart's Table for Two with Bruce Bozzi podcast. "You've got to figure out how to find out what's wanted and needed and where that intersects with your love and passion and what you can do. And even if it doesn't, you might have to do that anyway."
Investor Warren Buffett on the other hand has laid out his plans pretty explicitly at a 2006 New York Public Library event. In his speech, he explained how 85% of his fortune will go to give charitable organizations, inlcluding Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Some of the remaining 15% is set to go to his kids. They’ve known all along my views on inherited wealth, and share them. They have money that most people dream of," he said.
Bill Gates too explained in a 2014 Reddit AMA, why he is sticking to a relatively low inheritance plans. "I definitely think leaving kids massive amounts of money is not a favor to them. Warren Buffett was part of an article in Fortune talking about this in 1986 before I met him, and it made me think about it and decide he was right. Some people disagree with this, but Melinda and I feel good about it."
Other younger tech billionaires like Mark Zuckerberg is also walking on the same path. He took The Giving Pledge where he and his wife Priscilla Chan announced on the occasion of daughter Max's birth and they plan to give away 99 percent of their shares in the company. The couple announced how the money will go towards the initiative to "advance human potential and promote equality for all children in the next generation."
According to data from the Federal Reserve, about 85% of inheritances are smaller than $250,000, and the majority of those are $50,000 or less, and with wealth inequality rising in the states significantly in recent decades, these initiatives by high profiles can bring about a change and bridge the gap.
