Dylan Taylor made his first million at age 27. Last year, he took his space holding company, Voyager Technologies, public on the New York Stock Exchange, racking up many more millions. But don’t expect your two children to inherit all of this.
“I’m not a big proponent of intergenerational wealth transfer,” the founder and philanthropist told Fortune. “I don’t think it’s good for children. And frankly, I don’t think it’s good for society either.”
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That’s why, like Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, Taylor has set a hard limit on what her children will receive in the future. “It’s a lot of money, but it’s eight figures, not nine,” Taylor responded when asked exactly how much his children can expect to inherit.
When you have a fortune like Taylor’s—whose net worth surpassed the $1 billion mark last year thanks to Voyager’s initial public offering (IPO), an impressive real estate portfolio, and venture capital investments in companies like Robinhood, Relativity Space, and Calm—there’s only so much money you can spend in a single lifetime. At some point, the conversation turns to what to do with the rest.
“There comes a point where, when you have a few hundred million dollars, you just can’t spend everything you have,” explains Taylor. “So the question becomes: how much do you want to leave for your children?”
His answer: enough to provide a safety net, but not so much that it eliminates the need for them to build something themselves.
So far, it seems to be working. His children are old enough to access these resources, but, according to him, they have not yet touched this money. “They want to achieve things on their own,” adds Taylor. “And that’s exactly what you want. That’s what you expect.”
And everything that exceeds that eight-figure threshold — potentially hundreds of millions of dollars, or even more — will go to philanthropic causes he supports, including Space for Humanity, his nonprofit that sends people to space.
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This founder prefers financing to philanthropy
The number of billionaires on the planet continues to grow. And Taylor has watched closely—without much admiration—how many of them approach the question of what to do with the money they will never be able to spend.
“I’ve been in meetings where people obsess about tax deductions, trust funds, and ways to transfer more money to their kids,” says Taylor. “It just doesn’t make sense to me.”
“I’m not obsessed with this kind of deduction,” he adds. “If you’ve been very lucky in life, you should pay your taxes and contribute to society. For me, the question is: what are society’s unmet needs and how can we help?”
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He admits that if he had “a spare dollar”, he would prefer to donate it to charities instead of giving it to the government, because he is more confident that the money would reach those who really need it.
His philosophy on giving is clear: He’d rather see that money help people today than accumulate as much wealth as possible for great-great-grandchildren he’ll never meet.
“If this money ends up in some trust fund that will only benefit my fifth generation in the year 2200, I don’t think that’s in line with the spirit of making the world a better place.”
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And he’s far from the only one who thinks so.
Taylor is part of a growing group of ultra-rich people who are questioning whether passing on massive fortunes to one’s offspring is really a good way to raise children.
Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates revealed that he intends to leave less than 1% of his fortune to his children, believing that it is better for them to build their own success rather than simply inherit it.
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After Apple founder Steve Jobs died, his widow, Laurene Powell Jobs, said the billions she inherited would not be passed on to the couple’s three children.
Jobs, who was worth an estimated $7 billion when he died in 2011, had “no interest” in building hereditary wealth, his wife told the New York Times in 2020. “If I live long enough, this ends with me.”
Jeff Bezos, from Amazon, has also indicated that the vast majority of his fortune will go to philanthropy, and not to his four children.
Other wealthy businesspeople and celebrities have also been imposing strict rules and restrictions on access to wealth, such as requiring children to obtain two university degrees before receiving the money.
But it’s not just billionaires. Even people with much more modest bank accounts are making the same decision and choosing not to transfer their wealth to their descendants.
Only one in five baby boomers expects to leave an inheritance, according to a Northwestern Mutual survey — although more than half of Gen Z and almost 60% of millennials say they rely on an inheritance to achieve financial security.
And this is not a generation that simply has not yet organized its succession planning. In fact, 60% already have a will.
But your children and grandchildren are more likely to find funeral instructions than money or the deed to the family home. This is because the majority are explicitly planning to leave behind no assets, and only 11% say this is their main financial goal.
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