Mark Zuckerberg to Yvon Chouinard: Six of the world’s richest people who are not leaving their billions worth of fortune to their children

“Money won’t make success; the freedom to make it will,” said Nelson Mandela. For numerous billionaires across the world, money was not a given; they began with nothing and worked hard enough to now own everything. For their families and friends, they have made sure money is never a factor to consider when living life. But as important as financial stability is to a person, so is the will to do something on their own, create something of their own. And that is one thing the wealthy seem to understand, since they seem to be implementing it in their own children as well.In the next two decades, the heirs of the world’s richest are set to become even richer. An estimated $84 trillion is expected to be passed down in what has been deemed the largest-ever transfer of intergenerational wealth. However, not all billionaires seem to be on board. From Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg to Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard, some have decided against leaving their fortunes to their children, according to a recent report by Observer. Here’s a look at the who’s and who’s of the world that decided not to offer their wealth to their kids.

Mark Zuckerberg

Mark Zuckerberg started Facebook, now Meta Platforms, from a dorm room at Harvard University. The 42-year-old’s $199 billion fortune is connected to his 13% ownership of the company’s stock. However, he and his wife Priscilla Chan intend to give away 99% of their Meta shares. Shortly after the birth of their first child in 2015, the couple announced their plans to use the funds to promote equality, medical innovations and education through the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, which has committed more than $7.2 billion in grants since beginning in 2015. “Our society has an obligation to invest now to improve the lives of all those coming into this world, not just those already here,” said Zuckerberg at the time.

Laurene Powell Jobs

After the death of the famous founder, she inherited a fortune worth $14.9 billion but is not planning on giving it away to her three children

Laurene Powell Jobs is the wife of late Apple co-founder Steve Jobs. After the death of the famous founder, she inherited a fortune worth $14.9 billion but is not planning on giving it away to her three children. “I’m not interested in legacy wealth buildings, and my children know that,” she told The New York Times in 2020. “Steve wasn’t interested in that. If I live long enough, it ends with me.”Powell Jobs instead plans to distribute her money “in ways that uplift individuals and communities in a sustainable way.” Much of this has taken place through her umbrella organisation Emerson Collective, an organisation focused on impact investing, philanthropy and advocacy around environmental justice, health, immigration and education. It is estimated that Powell Jobs has already donated more than $2 billion to charitable causes through this fund. She has also reportedly been selling roughly 10% of her Disney shares each year since 2011. In addition, she pledged in 2021 to donate $3.5 billion over 10 years to organizations developing innovative solutions to climate change, a commitment she is fulfilling through the Waverley Street Foundation.

Michael Bloomberg

Michael Bloomberg is the founder of Bloomberg L.P., an empire that constitutes his eponymous media businesses and the Bloomberg Terminal, a financial data service. Despite owning a fortune worth $109 billion, he doesn’t intend to pass on his wealth to his two children. Instead in 2025, he announced that his company will eventually be given to a trust intended to finance Bloomberg Philanthropies, his charitable foundation. “When I die, the foundation inherits the company,” said Bloomberg during a summit in September 2023. “They, because of the tax laws, will have to get rid of it, sell it someplace or other over the first five years,” he added. The billionaire has also previously advocated against wealthy families hiring their own children, stating in 2016 that he would never let his daughters work for his company as it would be unfair to other employees.

Bill Gates

Bill Gates and Paul Allen founded Microsoft in 1975 after Gates dropped out of Harvard University. Through years of effort, the now 70-years-old has amassed an estimated fortune of $108.5 billion. This is despite him having given away most of his Microsoft stakes to fund his philanthropic Gates Foundation.Still, his three children do not expect to receive much of it. The billionaire has long maintained that his kids will be receiving only a “miniscule portion” of his wealth and will “have to find their own way.” In a 2017 Reddit AMA, Gates reportedly noted that “leaving kids massive amounts of money is not a favor to them” and revealed he became inspired to not leave an inheritance to his children after reading about Warren Buffett’s thoughts on the topic in a 1986 Fortune article. Alongside Buffett and his former wife Melinda French Gates, the Microsoft co-founder helped establish the Giving Pledge in 2010, a campaign urging the wealthy to give away the majority of their wealth during their lifetime.

Warren Buffet

Passing down mass amounts of money “just because they came out of the right womb” is an “antisocial act,” he said.

Warren Buffet has an estimated net worth of $144.6 billion. The 96-year-old Berkshire Hathaway founder has long maintained that his children will not be inheriting his wealth. He famously recommending in 2021, that ultra-wealthy families leave their children “enough so that they can do anything, but not enough that they can do nothing.” He declared that his three kids are “going to carve their own place in the world.” Passing down mass amounts of money “just because they came out of the right womb” is an “antisocial act,” he said.While Buffett may not be interested in giving his kids an inheritance, he has offered them funds in different ways. In 2006, the billionaire pledged to give all his Berkshire Hathaway shares to charity, including towards several family foundations run by his kids. Earlier this year, he revealed plans to transfer his fortune to a charitable trust upon his death that will be overseen by his children, who must unanimously agree on where to donate the money within a ten-year timeframe.

Yvon Chouinard

Yvon Chouinard, the founder of the outdoor gear retailer Patagonia once had a net worth of $1.2 billion. In September 2022, he gave up his ten-figure status when he decided to transfer his company to a trust and nonprofit dedicated to environmental causes. The majority of Patagonia is now owned by the nonprofit Holdfast Collective, which will give $100 million annually to combat climate change.However, here the case is a tad bit different. While Chouinard considered leaving his company to his heirs, the children themselves said they didn’t want it. Thus, they were left deciding the outcome of their father’s vast fortune. “It was important to them that they were not seen as the financial beneficiaries,” Ryan Gellert, CEO of Patagonia, told the New York Times in 2022. “They really embody this notion that every billionaire is a policy failure.”