WHEN your grandfather is the world's richest man, you'd hardly expect to have to worry about paying the bills.

 
PICTURE: REUTERS 
Yet Miss Nicole Buffett, the dreadlocked granddaughter of the famously frugal Nebraska billionaire Warren Buffett, has no cable television or health insurance.

The 32-year-old abstract painter was adopted by Mr Buffett's youngest son, Peter, who married Miss Buffett's mum when she was just four years of age.

In a Marie Claire interview, Miss Buffett said she has been financially cut off by her grandfather and lives on the money she makes selling her paintings.

Her famous surname helped her earn some of the US$40,000 ($58,000) from sales of her paintings sold from a hippie enclave of Berkeley, outside San Francisco.

She said: 'For most people, your life is largely determined by the wealth you were or weren't born into. But our family was supposed to be a meritocracy.'

The 78-year-old Buffett, who still lives in the Omaha suburban home he bought for $31,500 in 1958 and self-drives an American-made car, believes in holding on to the values he grew up with.

He does not believe in rewarding those he calls 'members of the lucky sperm club'.

Dubbed the 'Oracle of Omaha', Mr Buffett had reportedly said: 'I want to give my kids just enough so that they would feel that they could do anything, but not so much that they would feel like doing nothing.'

Earlier this year, he toppled Microsoft's Bill Gates as the world's richest man with an estimated US$62 billion net worth, according to Forbes magazine.

Yet as the world's savviest investor who served as an adviser to Barack Obama during the presidential campaign and was touted as a possible Treasury secretary, Mr Buffett paid himself only US$100,000 in salary in 2006.

Broke family code

Miss Buffett's troubles with her grandfather began when she broke the family code to speak about life as a Buffett.

She appeared in a documentary made by Mr Jamie Johnson, an heir to the Johnson and Johnson fortune, about wealth, entitled The One Percent.

When asked how her grandfather would react to seeing her, she had said: 'I definitely fear judgment. Money is the spoke in my grandfather's wheel of life.'

To worsen matters, while on a talk show to plug the documentary, Miss Buffett said: 'It would be nice to be involved with creating things for others with that money and to be involved in it. I feel completely excluded from it.'[/b]On hindsight, she admitted her remarks sounded brusque, but Mr Buffett had already taken offence.

A month later, he sent her a letter in which he said, among other things: 'People will react to you based on that 'fact' (of having a famous surname) rather than who you are or what you have accomplished.

[b]'I have not emotionally or legally adopted you as a grandchild, nor have the rest of my family adopted you as a niece or a cousin.'[/b]Said a distressed Miss Buffett: [b]'He signed the letter 'Warren'. I have a card from him just a year earlier that's signed 'Grandpa'.'
Since their falling out, she said her grandfather does send sizeable Christmas cheques despite his no-freebies rule.

Though she dreams of a reconciliation, it is not likely. Still, she will never stop being a Buffett.

She added: 'I will always be self-reliant. Grandpa taught me that, and it has set the tone for my life.'

http://newpaper.asia1.com.sg/news/story/0,4136,187651,00.html

it is his money plus he knows his kids more than anyone. the bodyshop anita roddick did same too.

How to give away £51m  
By Jonathan Duffy
BBC News Magazine   http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/4525994.stm
 
Body Shop founder Anita Roddick says she plans to give away her entire £51m fortune to good causes. But there's nothing straightforward about philanthropy these days.

Montgomery Brewster, the character played by the recently deceased Richard Pryor in Brewster's Millions, hardly ranks as one of Hollywood's all-time classic comedy creations. But the dilemma in which he found himself perhaps resonates ever more these days.

Brewster, a hapless small-time baseball player, had to get rid of $30m in 30 days, in order to avail himself of a $300m inheritance. Yet so luckless is this sorry protagonist that he can't even waste money competently. It just earns him more.

By contrast, Anita Roddick, one of the UK's best-known entrepreneurs, could never be described as incompetent. Yet the 63-year-old tycoon faces a similarly unusual predicament in the years to come.


Greenpeace has already benefited
For Dame Anita, founder of the Body Shop, is planning to give away her entire £51m fortune.

"I don't want to die rich," she told the Daily Telegraph. "Money does not mean anything to me."

Rather than throw her cash at seemingly fruitless investments, as Monty Brewster did, she wants to give it all to worthy causes.

Listen to anyone in the philanthropy sector, and they'll tell you that this is harder than it sounds. Giving away a fortune effectively is almost more difficult than it is to make the money in the first place, says Theresa Lloyd, author of Why Rich People Give.

Bewildering choice

Philanthropy has broad appeal in the UK, with almost 60% of people giving to charity at least once a month, according to a new report by the Charities Aid Foundation.

 
My intention is to give my money away - I don't want to die rich

Anita Roddick
At the very top end, among the super rich, a mini-industry has grown up in recent years advising benefactors how best to part with their wealth.

With some 180,000 charities in the UK alone, the sheer number of worthy causes can be mesmerising.

As head of strategic philanthropy for Coutts & Co bank, Mark Evans says clients are increasingly coming up against a checklist of familiar questions.

"We're finding people are saying they don't necessarily want to give everything to their children, which was the case historically.

"They don't want to give it to the government since they've had a big enough slice through tax. So they're left with charity. They could leave it all in their will, but where's the fun in that? And that's where Coutts comes in, to help them create personal giving strategies."

The "fun factor" is an important consideration among today's Giving Elite, says Ms Lloyd.

"Any intelligent charity will ensure that giving is a buzz," she says. Keeping benefactors abreast of developments, putting them in touch with beneficiaries, providing access to fundraising events - all are examples of how givers can expect a reward for their generosity.

But the watchword in the slick new philanthropist sector is "impact". Impact, according to A Guide to Giving, which advises wannabe philanthropists, is "the social return on your investment in a disadvantaged community; a park preserved; a patient cured; a diploma earned. In short, tangible evidence of money well-spent."

The guide sets out a list of check boxes to steer donors through the maze of considerations: what are their personal objectives; how much money do they have; what causes do they want to benefit - social, cultural, environmental etc; what are the mechanics of giving, and so on.

Giving it away

There is also room for some cold hard business sense. Giving, if it's done correctly, can be financially rewarding, with tax breaks for donors and beneficiaries.


Bill Gates has made multi-million dollar donations to malaria research
Perhaps the world's best known philanthropist is also the world's richest man - Microsoft founder Bill Gates. Much of his good work is done through his charitable foundation.

The trend for foundations, or trusts, is growing, says Ms Lloyd, who interviewed 100 philanthropists for her book, 50 of which had family trusts. Dame Anita has herself expressed a wish to start a foundation before she dies.

"With a trust you are making a long-term commitment to charity," says Ms Lloyd. "You are also involving your children who can become trustees at 18, and so it's about starting a family legacy."

One organisation spearheading this new approach is New Philanthropy Capital, which investigates charitable sectors and advises clients which of the lesser-known, or "non-brand name", charities can meet their expectations.

"Wealthy people are often too busy to investigate but they want to apply some rigour to their giving," says NPC's Maya Prabhu.

In two years, it has advised donors to the tune of £20m. "We don't do the high end of the arts or animal charities because we think they can look after themselves."

Given that Dame Anita's charitable priorities are the environment and human rights, she might do well to consult such an organisation on how best to benefit these causes

Body Shop founder Anita Roddick left daughters with nothing[color=#990000][/color]Jack Malvern
Anita Roddick, the late founder of the Body Shop, fulfilled her promise that she would not leave one penny of her multimillion-pound fortune to her children in her will.

The retailer gave £51 million to her charitable foundation before she died last year aged 64, leaving an estate of £655,747, which will go to the taxman. Her net worth is listed as nil.

It is understood that hundreds of thousands of pounds in death duties became liable on gifts of money she gave to family and friends shortly before her unexpected death, last September, from a brain haemorrhage. Large cash gifts escape inheritance tax only if the donor survives for seven years after the money is transferred.

Dame Anita once described the idea of bequeathing her fortune to her children as obscene. “I told my kids that they would not inherit one penny,” she said. “The money that we make from the company goes into the Body Shop Foundation, which isn’t one of those awful tax shelters, like some in America. It just functions to take the money and give it away.”

Related Links
Dame Anita Roddick
The genius of the Body Shop founder
Gordon Roddick, Dame Anita’s husband and business partner, will not be wanting for money, however. He will have his share of the £100 million the couple received when they sold the Body Shop in 2005. The couple owned 18 per cent of the company, which was bought for £625 million by L’Oréal, the French cosmetics giant.

Dame Anita gave her share of the profits to the Roddick Foundation, which supports charities such as Chicken Shed Theatre, Greenpeace and Amnesty International. The charity gives away up to £2.5 million a year.

The couple’s two daughters, Sam and Justine, have previously said that they supported their mother’s decision to disinherit them. Sam, 35, who runs Coco de Mer, an upmarket sex shop, said in an interview before her mother’s death that it was a relief. “If the money was divided between family members, I suppose it would be natural to equate the amount that you were left with the amount that you were loved, which makes it very complicated and emotional.

“If my mum had said to me, ‘I’m not leaving the money to you but I’ve decided to give it all to a distant cousin’, then I would have found that offensive. But giving it all to charity is different. You can’t argue about someone giving their money away, can you? They’ve already given us everything in terms of love and support.”

Dame Anita was told in 2004 that she had hepatitis C, contracted through a blood tranfusion when she gave birth to Sam in 1971. She had cirrhosis of the liver and needed a transplant, but appeared to be fighting the disease. Her collapse, at her home in West Sussex, came as a shock.

“Money does not mean anything to me,” she once said. “The worst thing is greed - the accumulation of money.”

Strong willpower

— Joan Crawford cut her two eldest children, Christina and Christopher from her will. Christina later published Mommie Dearest, about her mother’s abusive treatment

— Eugene O’Neill disinherited his daughter Oona, accusing her of seeking publicity fit for a second-rate actress and “floozie”

— Barron Hilton, Paris Hilton’s grandfather, said last year that he would leave almost all his fortune to charity, costing Paris $2.2bn

Source: www.legalzoom.com; agencies

http://women.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/women/beauty/article3760876.ece

lol @ " members of the lucky sperm club"

serves her right,next time she ll learn how to obey the head of the family@s wishes, she s not even a biological daughter and she has the mouth to go contrary to the man's explicit directives not to air the family's affairs in public

Keyword:Adopted

Well its his money and she did it to herself. Maybe next time she will keep her mouth shut. And like someone above me. shes ADOPTED.

1. She's adopted, her mother divorced Peter Warren when she was 10 . . . a good 8 yrs before the adoption process became final.

2. Why is she suddenly the mouthpiece of the family? If Warren Buffet werent a billionaire would she still have hung around after her mum left to marry someone else?

3. She had tuition paid for in a private expensive art school . . . she shld be grateful. some of us had to make do with scrapings.

4. Learn to keep your mouth shut.

adoption is not reason to be foolish. she is supposed to be a human being

SeanT21:

Keyword:Adopted

That's bullshit

He shd relax and put her in the will. wetin? She kill person?

dumb beyotch, all you had to do was keep shut.

The woman should not have served as a spokesperson for the family in the documentary, if she was aware of the consequences. And coming to publicize the fallout later on in the media perhaps portrays her as one who was only interested in milking the family's name for her personal gain.

was she paid for the documentary? Im sure if she had known that she would not get a slice of the family pie she would not have done it.

thats awful! i no wan carry last,i wud chang it for him,i go vex,

Akinagirl:

Well its his money and she did it to herself. Maybe next time she will keep her mouth shut. And like someone above me. shes ADOPTED.

I agree,

She has'nt done anything wrong to deserve such harsh treatment from the world's richest man.
He should have a rethink and include her in his will before he kisses the grave.

It's one thing to cut a child from your will but it's a whole other matter to cut them from your life.Maybe there is a lot both parties are not saying.But i think she should have listened because some people place a whole lot of premium on their privacy.