We talked about lottery and pools winners who lost the lot after a bit of good fortune ....
..... but what about the often spoilt second or later generations who blow the family fortunes?
Tori Spelling is an actress and reality star, but her late TV producer father Aaron Spelling had a fortune of $500 million (£380m) on his death in 2006. According to her mother Candy, Ms Spelling would apparently close a designer store and drop $60,000 (£46k) in one shopping session. But he was so alarmed at her free spending that he left her just $800,000. This would be $1 million (£764k) in today's money. Needless to say, Ms Spelling's inheritance was gone in no time.
In fact, Spelling was said to have spent a further $17 million (£13m) she didn't have by 2014. Recently Spelling and her husband were hit with a $1 million (£760k) tax bill, and ordered to pay an outstanding Citibank credit card debt. Her mother has had to cover her daughter's rent and bills.
Clarissa Dickson Wright, who was well known as half British TV cookery duo the Two Fat Ladies, inherited $3.7 million (£2.8m) after her mother died of a heart attack in 1975. This would be $29 million (£22m) in today's money. She was also high earning barrister, but a long depression, coupled with an alcohol issue, resulted in her spending large amounts of money chartering yachts and private jets, and gambling. By the early 1980's, Dickson Wright had been barred from practising law, and was effectively broke. Despite her later TV successes, after her death in 2014, a number of her personal items had to be sold to settle an outstanding tax bill.
John Hervey, 7th Marquess of Bristol, inherited $6 million (£5m) by his 21st birthday in 1975, which is around $65 million (£50m) in today's money. He led an extravagant lifestyle but even so he managed to increase his fortune by investing successfully in oil, real estate and farming. However a hard drug habit and spending money on partying, fast cars, yachts, and escorts reversed his fortunes.
He later confessed to splashing $9 million (£7m) on cocaine and heroin in less than a decade. He was imprisoned twice for drug offences and even deported from Australia. By the early 1990s, he was virtually bankrupt and in a sea of debt, and was forced to sell heirlooms and the lease on the family home Ickworth to the National Trust downsizing to Little Horringer Hall in 1998. Pretty much penniless, Hervey died there a year later from drug-related organ, failure.
Politician Maureen O'Connor was running for the San Diego City Council when she met the then married her husband Robert O. Peterson, the founder of the Jack in the Box fast food chain. O'Connor was elected mayor of San Diego, the first woman to hold the position, and remained in office until 1992. When her husband died in 1994, O'Connor inherited an estimated $50 million (£38m), which translates to $85 million (£65m) in today's money.
O'Connor struggled to cope with the loss of her husband and others, and started “grief gambling” with an addiction to video poker. Whilst she won $1 billion (£790m) from 2000 to 2008, she lost even more. In 2013, O'Connor was charged with money laundering after it was revealed she took $2.1 million (£1.6m) from her late husband's non-profit organisation, to cover some of her casino debts. Sentencing was deferred on the condition she pay back the money, but the judgement reportedly left her destitute.
Barbara Hutton was dubbed the 'Poor Little Rich Girl'. As heiress to the Woolworth fortune she had inherited a total of $50 million (£38m) by the time of her 21st birthday in 1933, just under $972 million (£739m) when adjusted for inflation. The heiress had an unhappy childhood despite her riches. Her mother committed suicide in 1933, and her father was largely absent during her childhood, so she dealt with her insecurities by spending money on jewellery, artworks, haute couture, and more.
Hutton went through seven husbands, including two princes, a count and Hollywood star Cary Grant (the couple were nicknamed Cash & Cary), and had numerous affairs, all of which cost her dear. She was nearly blind, and died bedridden and alone of a heart attack in 1979, at the age off 66, in the penthouse of The Beverly Wilshire Hotel. She had just $3,500 left in the bank.
Huntington Hartford II was heir to a grocery store empire, and boasted personal servants to cater to him with parents willing to buy him anything he wanted. When his father died in 1922, he was just 11 years old, and he inherited $90 million (£69m), a whopping $1.3 billion (£1bn) in today's money. He studied at Harvard. However he then pumped millions into a series of poorly run projects, from an art gallery and modelling agency, to a resort project in the Bahamas that lost $30 million (£23m). He married and divorced four times, always at great cost.
He declared bankruptcy in 1992, and lived alone in a run-down rented house in Brooklyn, before his daughter Juliet whisked him off to the Bahamas, where he passed away in 2008 penniless.
Clint Murchison Jr. was bequeathed a bumper $200 million (£153m) when his oil tycoon father died in 1969. Adjusted for inflation, this is equivalent of $1.4 billion (£1.1bn). In 1960, he founded the Dallas Cowboys, who went through 20 consecutive winning seasons, bankrolled of course by his father's money. He also invested in oil, real estate, restaurants and even a pirate radio station. Sadly many of the investments were laden with debt, and when the real estate market and oil prices collapsed in the 1980s he was forced to file for bankruptcy protection in 1985, owing his creditors millions in what was one of America's largest personal bankruptcy cases. He died two years later, having been forced to sell off assets including his family home.
Warwick (young) Fairfax decided aged 26 to execute a highly-leveraged take over of the Fairfax company by purchasing all the diverse families shares. However a share market crash by the end of that year meant that by 1991 the company was in receivership and nearly collapsed. The company had been Australia's dominant media company ... the Fairfax family had held a 150-year grip on absolute media power in Australia. Its near collapse, allowed Kerry Packer and the Murdoch's to rise, by their embracing of digital publishing, which had been eating the Fairfax business model for 10 years, as classified advertising was moving on-line and was clearly the future. The company name disappeared when it was removed by a merge that renamed it as Nine. Young Fairfax emigrated to the US were he became a business advisor ... ahem.
The Stroh Family - in the 1980's Stroh's brewery was one of America's fastest-growing companies and the country's third-largest brewing empire (Anheuser-Busch and Miller were bigger). The Stroh family had a fortune that Forbes calculated was then worth at least $700 million (currently be worth about $9 billion if they had matched the stock market performance - but shared by 30 relatives). By 2014 it was gone .... they tried to go national against the two giants, but were under financed, and became saddled with debt, as Stroh couldn't afford to match the advertising spending of its bigger rivals and a new rival Coors. By the end of the 1980's Coors overtook Stroh as the country's third-largest brewer.
Giving up, they tried to sell the family business to Coors for $425 million, but it fell through. Sales of Stroh's-brand beers fell more than 40% in one year, and market share fell from 13% in 1983 to 7.6% in 1991. They tried to borrow and spend their way out the hole (repeating earlier mistakes). By 1999 it was all over .... $100 million or so was transferred to a fund to pay employee pension liabilities, while the rest went into a trust fund for the family that dribbled out cheques until 2008, when it ran out completely and the fortune was gone.
I can't understand what losing the family fortune must be like .... never having a family with any inheritance value ... but what surprises me is that none of these recipients of great fortune ever though of just living of the interest.
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| Poor Little Rich Girl - Barbara Hutton. Barred From The Front Door Of The Paris Ritz Because She Is In Shorts |
..... but what about the often spoilt second or later generations who blow the family fortunes?
Tori Spelling is an actress and reality star, but her late TV producer father Aaron Spelling had a fortune of $500 million (£380m) on his death in 2006. According to her mother Candy, Ms Spelling would apparently close a designer store and drop $60,000 (£46k) in one shopping session. But he was so alarmed at her free spending that he left her just $800,000. This would be $1 million (£764k) in today's money. Needless to say, Ms Spelling's inheritance was gone in no time.
In fact, Spelling was said to have spent a further $17 million (£13m) she didn't have by 2014. Recently Spelling and her husband were hit with a $1 million (£760k) tax bill, and ordered to pay an outstanding Citibank credit card debt. Her mother has had to cover her daughter's rent and bills.
Clarissa Dickson Wright, who was well known as half British TV cookery duo the Two Fat Ladies, inherited $3.7 million (£2.8m) after her mother died of a heart attack in 1975. This would be $29 million (£22m) in today's money. She was also high earning barrister, but a long depression, coupled with an alcohol issue, resulted in her spending large amounts of money chartering yachts and private jets, and gambling. By the early 1980's, Dickson Wright had been barred from practising law, and was effectively broke. Despite her later TV successes, after her death in 2014, a number of her personal items had to be sold to settle an outstanding tax bill.
 |
| John Hervey - 7th Marquess of Bristol |
John Hervey, 7th Marquess of Bristol, inherited $6 million (£5m) by his 21st birthday in 1975, which is around $65 million (£50m) in today's money. He led an extravagant lifestyle but even so he managed to increase his fortune by investing successfully in oil, real estate and farming. However a hard drug habit and spending money on partying, fast cars, yachts, and escorts reversed his fortunes.
He later confessed to splashing $9 million (£7m) on cocaine and heroin in less than a decade. He was imprisoned twice for drug offences and even deported from Australia. By the early 1990s, he was virtually bankrupt and in a sea of debt, and was forced to sell heirlooms and the lease on the family home Ickworth to the National Trust downsizing to Little Horringer Hall in 1998. Pretty much penniless, Hervey died there a year later from drug-related organ, failure.
Politician Maureen O'Connor was running for the San Diego City Council when she met the then married her husband Robert O. Peterson, the founder of the Jack in the Box fast food chain. O'Connor was elected mayor of San Diego, the first woman to hold the position, and remained in office until 1992. When her husband died in 1994, O'Connor inherited an estimated $50 million (£38m), which translates to $85 million (£65m) in today's money.
O'Connor struggled to cope with the loss of her husband and others, and started “grief gambling” with an addiction to video poker. Whilst she won $1 billion (£790m) from 2000 to 2008, she lost even more. In 2013, O'Connor was charged with money laundering after it was revealed she took $2.1 million (£1.6m) from her late husband's non-profit organisation, to cover some of her casino debts. Sentencing was deferred on the condition she pay back the money, but the judgement reportedly left her destitute.
Barbara Hutton was dubbed the 'Poor Little Rich Girl'. As heiress to the Woolworth fortune she had inherited a total of $50 million (£38m) by the time of her 21st birthday in 1933, just under $972 million (£739m) when adjusted for inflation. The heiress had an unhappy childhood despite her riches. Her mother committed suicide in 1933, and her father was largely absent during her childhood, so she dealt with her insecurities by spending money on jewellery, artworks, haute couture, and more.
Hutton went through seven husbands, including two princes, a count and Hollywood star Cary Grant (the couple were nicknamed Cash & Cary), and had numerous affairs, all of which cost her dear. She was nearly blind, and died bedridden and alone of a heart attack in 1979, at the age off 66, in the penthouse of The Beverly Wilshire Hotel. She had just $3,500 left in the bank.
Huntington Hartford II was heir to a grocery store empire, and boasted personal servants to cater to him with parents willing to buy him anything he wanted. When his father died in 1922, he was just 11 years old, and he inherited $90 million (£69m), a whopping $1.3 billion (£1bn) in today's money. He studied at Harvard. However he then pumped millions into a series of poorly run projects, from an art gallery and modelling agency, to a resort project in the Bahamas that lost $30 million (£23m). He married and divorced four times, always at great cost.
He declared bankruptcy in 1992, and lived alone in a run-down rented house in Brooklyn, before his daughter Juliet whisked him off to the Bahamas, where he passed away in 2008 penniless.
Clint Murchison Jr. was bequeathed a bumper $200 million (£153m) when his oil tycoon father died in 1969. Adjusted for inflation, this is equivalent of $1.4 billion (£1.1bn). In 1960, he founded the Dallas Cowboys, who went through 20 consecutive winning seasons, bankrolled of course by his father's money. He also invested in oil, real estate, restaurants and even a pirate radio station. Sadly many of the investments were laden with debt, and when the real estate market and oil prices collapsed in the 1980s he was forced to file for bankruptcy protection in 1985, owing his creditors millions in what was one of America's largest personal bankruptcy cases. He died two years later, having been forced to sell off assets including his family home.
Warwick (young) Fairfax decided aged 26 to execute a highly-leveraged take over of the Fairfax company by purchasing all the diverse families shares. However a share market crash by the end of that year meant that by 1991 the company was in receivership and nearly collapsed. The company had been Australia's dominant media company ... the Fairfax family had held a 150-year grip on absolute media power in Australia. Its near collapse, allowed Kerry Packer and the Murdoch's to rise, by their embracing of digital publishing, which had been eating the Fairfax business model for 10 years, as classified advertising was moving on-line and was clearly the future. The company name disappeared when it was removed by a merge that renamed it as Nine. Young Fairfax emigrated to the US were he became a business advisor ... ahem.
The Stroh Family - in the 1980's Stroh's brewery was one of America's fastest-growing companies and the country's third-largest brewing empire (Anheuser-Busch and Miller were bigger). The Stroh family had a fortune that Forbes calculated was then worth at least $700 million (currently be worth about $9 billion if they had matched the stock market performance - but shared by 30 relatives). By 2014 it was gone .... they tried to go national against the two giants, but were under financed, and became saddled with debt, as Stroh couldn't afford to match the advertising spending of its bigger rivals and a new rival Coors. By the end of the 1980's Coors overtook Stroh as the country's third-largest brewer.
Giving up, they tried to sell the family business to Coors for $425 million, but it fell through. Sales of Stroh's-brand beers fell more than 40% in one year, and market share fell from 13% in 1983 to 7.6% in 1991. They tried to borrow and spend their way out the hole (repeating earlier mistakes). By 1999 it was all over .... $100 million or so was transferred to a fund to pay employee pension liabilities, while the rest went into a trust fund for the family that dribbled out cheques until 2008, when it ran out completely and the fortune was gone.
I can't understand what losing the family fortune must be like .... never having a family with any inheritance value ... but what surprises me is that none of these recipients of great fortune ever though of just living of the interest.
Another interesting list of people who are bad with money. Apart from their lack of financial acumen, there's also the moral dimension where they hold the potential wealth of hundreds or thousands of people and flush it down the toilet.
ReplyDeleteNot to forget their disgruntled (or not) heirs who never inherit the fortunes that they might have expected.
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