I just finished reading this book, it’s not exactly light reading at 217 pages, plus a bonus section. But it was a captivating read.
The book was of course about John D Rockefeller and his plan to preserve his wealth across generations.
It is a little known observation that while many multi-millionaires leave their families multi-million dollar fortunes, Historians teach us that after estate taxes, income taxes, division of the fortune multiple times amongst the descendants and bad financial management cause most fortunes to be gone by the 3rd generation.
The book gives several examples of families like the Vanderbilt’s who left fortunes, 105 million dollars in the case of the Vanderbilt’s and by the time of the family reunion 3 generations later, not a single Vanderbilt was a millionaire.
The book then goes on to describe one very wealthy and wise man, John D Rockerfeller, who gathered financial and legal experts together, no doubt the best legal and financial minds money could buy or employ, to create a family wealth plan to preserve and even multiply the family fortune.
The plan was very straightforward. It focused on the things which shrank wealth and built a family bank which kept his fortune from being divided, taxed and squandered. But provided a mechanism to allow the family members to lead rich, productive and luxurious lives. All while growing the family fortune.
The book is very detailed about the outline if the plan, and unsurprisingly another rich family the Rothchild’s uses the same methodology in their family wealth preservation plan, and several banks use some of the tenants of the plan to build income and reduce risk.
The plan has several parts, but mainly keeping the fortune together, creating s family bank to finance life purchases through loans and payment of all the principle and interest back to the family bank, along with the Family bank providing business loans, for individual wealth generation with payment of the loans with interest back to the family bank. Plus the use of whole or permanent life insurance to earn guaranteed rates of tax free return and provide powerful wealth multipliers through accumulated cash value, utilizing the 8th wonder of the world compound interest and of course the death benefit.
Conclusion
The book provided a interesting history of wealthy families, it delved into the methods a few families used not just to preserve, but increase the family wealth and what tools and strategies they used to make being wealthy a family trait. It was a long book, but enjoyable. I learned several strategies which require further study and development.
The most important things I learned is that the vast majority of people look to people in their same financial class for advice or behavior to emulate. While there is a type of comfort derived from doing what everyone else in your financial class is doing, economics teaches us that in order to improve your financial status it is better to look at the people above you on the financial ladder and emulate their behaviors instead. It is only by being unique in this manner that you can elevate your economic position. It is uncomfortable emotionally to leave the pack or herd, but the herd mentality that protects us from predators doesn’t serve us well when our herd is struggling financially. When we look at the wealthy like the Rockefeller’s and Rothschilds we see that they did things that other rich people weren’t doing and as a result they have been able to achieve things the many other multi-millionaire families haven’t been able to; beat the 3rd generation curse and instead of shrink, grow the family fortune. We see that even at their financial class in order to achieve financial goals the others in their class were not able to achieve they had to think and act differently.
A familiar thought to many I am sure.
✍️ by Shortsegments.
I was able to get the book for free at this website by giving them my email address.
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Hi
Thank you for reading the 217 pages and giving us a good summary. Now I feel like I read it also.
Maybe you could review the best chapters in the future? Thanks again. Good post.
There’s a good manuscript on the Rothschilds which is also a good read, and similar strategies are used.
I have heard that name before. I think they own or control one of the Federal Reserve Ststem Banks! They are definitely a member of the Super Rich class. I will look for their book. Do you have a link? How many pages is it?
Thank you very much. I have a long trip coming up and one of these books might be perfect for my downtime!
Good Point. The Rothschilds are also a legendary rich banking family which figured out how to preserve and increase their wealth with a Family Bank. It’s ironic and telling that a Family known for creating its wealth by owning and running banks for others to use, uses a Family Bank concept where their family avoids using banks for the same services the majority of their customers use.
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Very nice post, enjoyed reading how the rich remain rich for generations after generations...they also understand the tax law very well.
Thank you the compliment, I think that is a key point, estate taxes, income taxes, investment taxes... you get the picture.
It seems that a universal strength of governments is the ability to invent additional types of taxes.
🙁
WOW! This is a very cool review. I really think I should give the book a read. I can not imagine myself not buying and reading this book in less than a week from now. I appreciate your decent review on realityhubs and I look forward to your next review.
Suggestion: I could not find a link to download or buy the book on your review. Please consider including that. I found a copy online though (Link) but please kindly confirm that it is the right one.
Cheers.
RealityHubs Mod
This is a good suggestion. I have modified the post to provide a link where I got the book for free by giving them my email address.
Here it is:https://wealthfactory.com/rockefeller-book/letter/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=shopping&utm_campaign=google-shopping&utm_content=wwrd-abridged-295&mb=wf&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIxabxp7nh5AIVkNlkCh3RbATgEAQYASABEgJogPD_BwE
Yes, that is the correct book and link!Thank you, I am glad you enjoyed the review @knowledges
I think your suggestion is a good one. I have modified the post to provide a link where I got the book for free by giving them my email address.
@shortsegments
Here it is:https://wealthfactory.com/rockefeller-book/letter/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=shopping&utm_campaign=google-shopping&utm_content=wwrd-abridged-295&mb=wf&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIxabxp7nh5AIVkNlkCh3RbATgEAQYASABEgJogPD_BwE