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Sting’s children won’t receive money in his will

Sting has joined the likes of other mega-wealthy folk saying he doesn’t intend to leave much of his $306 million fortune for his children to inherit.
Sting with children

Sting has joined the likes of other mega-wealthy folk saying he doesn’t intend to leave much of his $306 million fortune for his children to inherit.

The Police frontman told The Mail on Sunday that he felt trust funds with immense wealth would be like “albatrosses” hanging around the necks of his six children.

The 62-year-old came from humble beginnings in a shipbuilding community in northeast England and says he raised his children without a sense of entitlement.

“They have to work,” he told the Mail on Sunday Event magazine. “All my kids know that and they rarely ask me for anything, which I appreciate. Obviously, if they were in trouble I would help them, but I’ve never really had to do that. They have this work ethic that makes them want to succeed on their own merit.”

The 16-time Grammy Award winner and his wife, Trudy Styler, have many philanthropic interests and the singer says his children – aged between 18 and 37 – know that a lot of their money goes into charitable activism.

“I told them there won’t be much money left because we are spending it,” he said. “We have a lot of commitments. What comes in we spend, and there isn’t much left.”

Sting is the latest in a long line of high-profile wealthy figures to affirm they want their children to make their own way in the world. Here are some of the most memorable.

Sting, pictured here with daughters Kate and Mickey, says while he is generous with his six children he has tried to raise them with a sensible work ethic. “People make assumptions, that they were born with a silver spoon in their mouth, but they have not been given a lot,” he told the Mail on Sunday’s Event Magazine.

Domestic goddess Nigella Lawson has made millions from being a TV chef but she wants her children to support themselves once they finish their education.”I am determined that my children should have no financial security. It ruins people not having to earn money,” she said.

Music mogul Simon Cowell became a father for the first time early this year but says rather than leaving his estimated £225 million fortune to his son Eric, a lot will be given to charity explaining: “I don’t believe in passing on from one generation to another.”

IT mogul Bill Gates has said that his children wouldn’t inherit the majority of his estimated $76 billion fortune. “They won’t have anything like that. They need to have a sense that their own work is meaningful and important,” he has been quoted as saying. Gates and his wife Melinda even went one step further and set up “The Giving Pledge” which invites other well-to-do individuals to donate half of their fortune to charity. “I didn’t think it was a good idea to give the money to my kids. That wouldn’t be good either for my kids or society,” Gates once said.

As Australia’s richest woman one would think that mining magnate Gina Rinehart would have enough dosh to go around but Gina – who inherited her company from her father Lang Hancock – believes three of her four children aren’t fit to manage the family fortune. “None of the plaintiffs has the requisite capacity or skill, nor the knowledge, experience, judgment or responsible work ethic to administer a trust in the nature of the trust in particular as part of the growing HPPL Group,” she once claimed in court papers.

If the children of director George Lucas are greedy they might be wishing he was not their father. The dad-of-four has committed to donating at least half of his fortune to charity before he dies via Bill and Melinda Gates’ initiative, The Giving Pledge.

Warren Buffet, 83, has reportedly pledged to donate 99 per cent of his billion dollar wealth. “I want to give my kids just enough so that they would feel that they could do anything, but not so much that they would feel like doing nothing,” he wrote to the Gates Foundation.

Kiss bassist Gene Simmons says his $300 million fortune won’t be an excuse to stop his two children, Nick and Sophie (pictured) from working. “In terms of an inheritance and stuff, they’re gonna be taken care of, but they will never be rich off my money,” he said during a TV interview. “Because every year they should be forced to get up out of bed, and go out and work and make their own way.”

The late Anita Roddick – founder of the Body Shop – left her entire £51 million fortune to charity after describing leaving money to one’s own family as “obscene”.

Sir Paul McCartney is rumoured to have once been described as “a tight b**” by his daughter Stella after sending her to a public school.

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