“Who Really Owns The Empire Now?” – Billionaire Heirs Battle Trusts, CEOs And Family Offices

**Tom** (0:02)
I'm not giving up. I am selling the building.

**Pat** (0:06)
The final season of FX is the Bear.

**Humberto** (0:10)
The restaurant is flooded. Everything's either going to be okay...

**Pat** (0:15)
No, stop!...

**Humberto** (0:16)
or not.

**Pat** (0:18)
We are outgunned and we are outmanned, but we have each other. FX is the Bear, the final season.

**Humberto** (0:26)
All episodes now streaming on Disney+.

**Pat** (0:29)
Billionaires are fighting their heirs for control beyond the grave. This is a Bloomberg story. They are fighting their kids. And what's going to happen with the money that they made that's going to the kids or not going to the kids? They are having fights. So what does this mean?
A growing number of billionaires are using trust not to just pass on wealth, but to control how their empires operate long after they are gone.
What founders view as protection is often viewed by heirs as restriction, but his family office advisor, Kirby Rosplock, puts it, what one generation might see as protection, the next generation experiences as restriction. The Pierre Castle case, the 99-year-old founder of a drinks empire worth roughly $10 billion spent more than three decades constructing an elaborate succession structure. He consolidated ownership through Gibraltar, created a foundation in Liechtenstein, established a trust in Singapore. That is some technical shit right there. The goal was to minimize taxes, preserve the business and prevent the future family conflict. Instead, the succession plan itself has become the source of conflict. The family is fighting the system. Earlier this year, Castle's daughter, Romeo and his nephew, Alain, attempted to remove the CEO chosen by Pierre Castle. The dispute has now reached Singapore's Supreme Court. At the center of the fight is the question, who actually controls the empire, the family or the trust structure created to constrain the family? Number two, separating ownership from control. One of the key features of modern billionaire succession planning is the separation of economic ownership from decision-making power. Family members may receive dividend and inherit wealth while being denied meaningful control over the business itself. Number three, last but not least, the real fight is control. Romeo Castle argues that CEO Gregory Clark has accumulated excessive influence and is attempting to take control. The opposing side argues that the trust structure is functioning exactly as intended and that management should remain independent from family politics. Tom?

**Tom** (2:25)
You know, this is a headline because people, Bloomberg said, the air is controlled from beyond the grave and they try to create clicks in a headline. But really, it's a very, very simple issue. The little greedy bastards in the next generation want to go grab the money and have fun.
And the previous generation built it, and he took a few steps here because of taxes that were legal and we would say he's stretching. No, he's not. He did what was legal to create entities for tax purposes. It was legal. You don't want him to do it anymore.
Take those off the books. Those are no longer valid tax options, and he doesn't do it. But the real issue here is the spoiled brats of billionaires. And I'll put two sides on this. One, they're giving in to their human desires just to get the money from dad. But number two, if you raise kids that are going to be spoiled brats and you have a lot of money, you can expect this behavior.
You need to raise kids that respect what's going on and understand how this game is going to be played. And you need to be the kind of father and the kind of, you know, a scion of the family office that says, this is how we're going to do it. This is how it will be laid out. If you raise enabled spoiled brats, Pat, you can expect them after you're gone to go get lawyers and try to manipulate things and get there. But the story here that Bloomberg misses, and I'm not surprised that Bloomberg missed it, is that what about the family offices that somehow raised great kids and the feelings and the desires and the impact points of the family scion was maintained? I believe in education, long after I'm gone, I want the following things to happen, and this is the way we're going to do it. They're leaving out that part.

**Pat** (4:08)
Snyder.

**SPEAKER_4** (4:08)
In one sense, you're kind of saying, I'm setting this up because I know I'm a terrible father.
I don't trust my children to take over the family business, and maybe they know their kids well, but what Tom says is exactly right. But even if you do raise good children, there's still going to be conflict. Say you groom your son to be or your daughter to be, to take over your family empire, they're going to have their own ideas anyway. There's always going to be a clash.