Daniel Craig is worth an estimated $201 million but will his kids see any of it?
There’s the bonds market, and there’s the James Bond market. The latter has made its current star a very wealthy man.
The long-running movie franchise, which saw its 2012 iteration Skyfall surpass US$1 billion globally at the box office (2015’s Spectre fell a couple of hundred million dollars short of that) has helped current star Daniel Craig amass a fortune estimated at around C$201 million.
But it seems that Craig is of similar mind to a growing number of high profile rich individuals who are not planning to hand an eyewatering legacy to their children.
In an interview with Candis magazine, the 53 year old Brit says that he has other plans for his fortune and finds the idea of inheritance “quite distasteful.”
Hopefully, he’s discussed this with his family, 20-year old Ella (from his first marriage) and wife Rachel Weisz. The couple also have a two year old daughter and Weisz has a son from a previous marriage.
Rather than leave a huge financial legacy to his family, Craig believes that a better strategy is to “get rid of it or give it away before you go.”
He’s not alone
Craig is not the only big name to decide that passing on a fortune is not the best option.
Many wealthy investors including Bill Gates and Melinda French Gates, Warren Buffett, Mackenzie Bezos, and Canadians John and Marcy McCall MacBain have pledged to give away at least half of their wealth during their lifetimes.
In the world of celebrity, entertainment entrepreneur Simon Cowell told Esquire magazine that he doesn’t believe in passing on wealth, so his son Eric will have to make his own fortune.
Elton John’s two sons will also be gifted enough to make them financially secure, but not the singer’s estimated C$652 million, while Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis are planning to leave most of their $338m to charity when they die.
