LMAO... this is called Asset planning, Otherwise the Death Tax would get a Majority of the Wealth. Nothing to see here folks, nothing has changed.
That was my first thought.
The family will be in charge of the various foundations and charities.
Imagine a relative establishing a foundation for educational posting. The purpose of the charity is to fund posting on the internet. (IOW grandpa leaves money so junior can post on FR with all living expesnse paid)
I'm an Estate Planning attorney. The maximum Estate Tax rate is now 45%, meaning that the family would get to keep 55% of more than 2 billion, with no Estate Planning at all - if the old man was so inclined. That's well over $1 billion, still quite a lot of money. Unless you have a rate near 100%, simply giving it away isn't good planning.
Evidently he's not so inclined, and in fact he seems to be disgusted with his family's behavior. I guess that I would be, also. Maybe he is hoping that the family realizes that it will have to actually WORK to support a decent lifestyle, and working steady for high pay means (generally) being mature and responsible, and that the behavior will change.
Maybe he's also trying to find out who really loves HIM and who loves his checkbook and brokerage account. For an entertaining look at that strategy, see the movie "Greedy" with Kirk Douglas that came out in 1994.
Many wills have clauses which state that anyone who contests the will automatically forfeits their original bequest.
Many states also have court decisions that negate these clauses. The reasoning is that they are too harsh, and therefor contrary to public policy. Result: the clause is read out of the Will as if it wasn't ever there in the first place, and the rest stays...leaving heirs free to challenge the Will. My Wills all have clauses that make any challenger pay all of the legal fees that the Estate pays out of their inheritance/award, first as a way of discouraging such suits, and second as a way of not punishing those who didn't sue (because otherwise the fees would come partially out of their pockets).
The man should just give it away now, enjoy the feeling of the magnanimous gift and ensure that goes where he wants. That way it’s not left up to the lawyers to usurp it by contesting the will.
He should just spend it all before he goes. You can’t contest what ain’t there.
One way is to spend it. Another is to set up a Charitable Remainder Trust, in which the Trust pays the Grantor (Barron, in this case) X% of the principal per year/quarter/month for the rest of his life. After he dies, whatever is in the Trust goes to named charities. END OF STORY, if Barron puts substantially all of his assets into the Trust.
This one of the best known super rich scams. It’s called estate planning. A former boss of mine did it. It is designed to avoid paying huge inheritance taxes on transfer of ownership of the corporation.
I read that post-very interesting, and yes, very common among the very wealthy. This assumes that Barron Hilton actually wants to reward his heirs - maybe he's totally disgusted by them, etc., as mentioned above. But COULD this be the objective? Yup.