Add Anderson Cooper to the list of the rich and famous who are publicly announcing that they won’t be leaving their fortunes to their kids.
The CNN anchor and son of the late Gloria Vanderbilt says that he won’t leave a “pot of gold” behind for his son when he’s gone. Instead, Cooper will follow his mother’s lead, who he said once told him, “College will be paid for, and then you gotta get on it.’”
“I don’t believe in passing on huge amounts of money,” the 54-year-old said on the latest episode of the “Morning Meeting” podcast, where he was promoting his new book on the Vanderbilts. “I’m not that interested in money … I don’t intend to have some sort of pot of gold for my son.”
Cooper, who became a father in April 2020 and who reportedly earns around $12 million a year from CNN, according to Yahoo Finance, had previously said on Howard Stern’s radio program that he believes large inheritances kill a person’s drive to succeed.
“I think it’s an initiative sucker,” he said in 2014. “I think it’s a curse.”
Cooper is far from alone in his view on inheritances: a recent survey of American millionaires found that nearly 70% were worried about the possibility of leaving too much money for their heirs, fearing the wealth would be “used irresponsibly” or that it “would cause beneficiaries to be lazy.”
Investor and O’Shares ETFs chairman Kevin O’Leary shared Cooper’s outlook in a recent interview with CNBC Make It. “You curse a child when you de-risk their lives” by leaving them too much money, O’Leary said.
“No free lunch,” he added. “It’s just the wrong thing to do.”
“James Bond” actor Daniel Craig and famed investor Warren Buffett both also expressed their opposition to leaving large amounts of money to their kids, with Craig saying he finds the practice “distasteful.”
