Apple Inc (AAPL.O) Chief Executive Tim Cook is joining the roster of the very rich who are giving away their wealth.
Yahoo Finance reports about this story in an article titled “Apple’s Tim Cook will give away all his money.” Cook plans to pay for his nephew’s college education and give everything else away.
This is a trend that started with Warren Buffet, who encourages billionaires to donate at least half of their wealth to charity. The theory is that you can rear your family well enough so they will be able to take care of themselves and not need to inherit the wealth.
However, the big potential drawback to this plan is that family members may not agree that they do not need the inheritance.
In fact, the views of your family members regarding what they need or want might be very different from yours.
It is better to uncover their thinking now before you are gone.
Why?
Because estate litigation can be very expensive and unduly enrich trial attorneys.
Accordingly, if you plan to give all of your wealth to charities, then it is only prudent that you communicate this with your family members sooner rather than later.
It is important that you get your family to buy into the plan while you can.
