Summary
- Kevin O'Leary has decided not to leave his fortune to his children, believing that it would curse them and de-risk their lives.
- Instead, O'Leary has set up a generational skipping trust that will provide for any child in his family until they finish college, but no longer.
- O'Leary's money will be put in the bank and cannot be touched by his children, but they may receive money from the trust if they become parents.
After Shark Tank premiered on TV in 2009, the show has gone on to air for a truly impressive fifteen seasons to date. The reason for the show's ongoing success is fans are fascinated by how rich the sharks are, the deals they make, and whether they get along or not.
While Kevin O'Leary certainly isn't the richest of the sharks, he definitely seems to be the most money-obsessed. With that in mind, it may shock many Shark Tank fans that O'Leary isn't going to make his kids rich like he is. Instead, none of O'Leary's riches are being left to his kids.
Who Are Kevin O'Leary's Children?
After years in the public eye, Kevin O'Leary has managed to accumulate a lot of fans who like his blunt approach to business. On the other hand, Mr. Wonderful, as he likes to call himself, also has lots of people who can't stand him.
Given that O'Leary has so many detractors, it makes sense that he mostly tries to keep his family out of the spotlight. When O'Leary's wife got in legal trouble, that briefly became impossible, but he has mostly been successful at maintaining his children's anonymity.
As a result of O'Leary keeping his kids away from the media, very little is known about them. That said, some information about O'Leary's children has come out over the years.
In 1993, O'Leary's daughter Savannah O’Leary, was born. Similar to her famous father, Savannah O’Leary has also created a career for herself in the entertainment business. The major difference is that Savannah O’Leary works behind the camera as a director and editor.
Roughly three years after O'Leary's first child came into the world, his son Trevor O’Leary was born in 1996. After going to school at Canada's McGill University, Trevor O’Leary earned a degree in electrical engineering. Very passionate about cars, Trevor O’Leary has worked for Tesla in the body controls hardware department.
What Is Going To Happen To Kevin O'Leary's Estate?
Over the last couple of decades, it has become increasingly common for the rich and famous to reveal what they plan to do with their estate. In most of those cases, those people have announced that they plan to leave nothing to their children. A perfect example of that is Gene Simmons has revealed his kids don't get his money when he passes away.
In 2021, Shark Tank's Kevin O'Leary revealed that like those other stars, he has decided not to leave his money to his children. More than that, O'Leary announced the reasons for his decision to not give either of his kids millions of dollars.
According to O'Leary, he has come to believe that it is a bad idea for people to know they are set to inherit a fortune. More than that, O'Leary actually believes that if he left his money to his children, he'd be cursing them.
“No free lunch, it’s just the wrong thing to do. You curse a child when you de-risk their lives. But that doesn’t mean you can’t help them." O'Leary went on to explain that he got his belief that kids have to be left to find success for themselves from his mother.
“She hated entitlement. She thought if you made it so that if [kids] didn’t have to work, they wouldn’t. And I think she’s right. Many people today know examples of rich, spoiled children who don’t care about pursuing a career and have no reason to do so because their life has been entirely de-risked.”
Based on the way that O'Leary comes across on television, his mentality on inheritances may surprise a lot of fans. After all, since O'Leary seems to believe that money matters so much, it seems like he wouldn't be able to stand the idea of his kids being broke.
Either way, knowing that O'Leary won't be leaving his money to his kids, that begs an obvious question, what does he plan to do with his fortune?
Most of the time when rich people decide to not give their money to their kids, they are donating their fortunes to charity. For example, George Lucas has pledged to use his fortune to fund education programs.
Considering O'Leary's public persona is so obsessed with money, most people likely think that Mr. Wonderful doesn't care about charity. In reality, however, O'Leary is more philanthropic than many Shark Tank fans realize.
Still, as O'Leary has explained, he doesn't plan to leave his money to a charity. Instead, O'Leary still plans to leave his fortune to his family even though his kids won't be cashing in.
During the same interview where O'Leary revealed he isn't leaving his money to his kids, he explained what he is doing instead.
Since O'Leary comes across as someone who often sees the big picture, it isn't surprising that he made plans for his fortune many years ago. As O'Leary explained, he made arrangements to help provide for future generations of his family in a way that won't de-risk life for his kids.
“I sat down with the estate planners and built a generational skipping trust that provides for any child in my family from birth to the last day of college and then zero."
For people without experience in the business world, O'Leary's plans may not be clear based on that statement alone. Fortunately, several articles explain what is going to happen to O'Leary's money.
When O'Leary passes away, his fortune is going to be put in the bank where it can't be touched by his kids. However, if either of O'Leary's kids becomes a parent, they will get money from the trust to provide for their kids.
From the moment that any of O'Leary's potential grandchildren are born, the trust will provide for them until they finish school. As soon as O'Leary's potential grandkids have completed their education, they no longer get anything from the trust.
