In the unending tug of war between the investor and society, society almost always wins. Over time, most family fortunes are dissipated. There are many reasons for this.
Governments use their taxing power to wrest from investors as much wealth as possible.
But family wealth need not be destroyed. In this edition of The Long View we discuss how a family can, over more than one generation, build a substantial amount of capital through intelligent long-term planning. To these difficult questions we can only answer that the decision is highly personal. We would, however, suggest that everyone should decide what they wish to have happen to their capital on their death and plan accordingly. We hope that those who like the idea of using their capital to build a family dynasty will find this to be a helpful guide.