You Can't Take It With You: The Life and Afterlife of America's Greatest Fortunes
Why do people want to become very rich? In this series, Eric Schoenberg, a psychologist who studies the behavior of the very wealthy, offers an answer by looking at the stories of nine Americans who became among the richest people of their time, with a particular focus on what happened to their great wealth after they died.
You Can't Take It With You: The Life and Afterlife of America's Greatest Fortunes
7. Dead Hand Control
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Eric Schoenberg
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Season 1
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Episode 7
The will of Wellington Burt, a Michigan timber baron who died in 1919, created a trust for his $13 million estate that called for less than 1% of it to be distributed annually until 20 years after his last grandchild had died. Although his family would fight the will in court for the next 40 years, in 2011 a dozen lucky descendants of Burt’s ranging from 19 to 94 split a $100 million jackpot when the trust was finally dissolved.
