Category: Lives

I’ve written a lot about the virtues of giving money to charity while you’re still alive, and there’s growing consensus about the virtues of “giving while living.”
But there’s still widespread disagreement on when to hand over money to kids — should it be while the parents are alive, or after they’re gone?

The argument for […]

Today, Joe Lewis is known as the guy who lost hundreds of millions of dollars in one weekend. But before the Bear Stearns debacle, he was known as the fastest trader on the high seas.

According to business associates, Mr. Lewis spends a good deal of time on his yacht, even though his official residence is […]

Steve Schwarzman, the famed birthday boy, wealth-denying billionaire and scourge of the private-equity world, has just closed his largest charitable deal.

An article in the New York Times by Robin Pogrebin broke news that Mr. Schwarzman is pledging $100 million to the New York Public Library. In return (of course there’s an “in return”) the library’s […]

It’s official: the wealthy are in an economic slump. According to Chicago-based Spectrem Group, the number of millionaires in the U.S. grew a meager 2% in 2007. That compares with 8% growth in 2006, 11% in 2005 and 21% in 2004.
There are now 9.2 million households worth $1 million or more, not including the value […]

The complaint filed in the Emperors Club escort bust, which apparently nabbed Eliot Spitzer, casts a rare spotlight on the dealings between the wealthy and high-priced escort services. (See the Journal’s article on Mr. Spitzer.)
For one, the complaint makes clear that the wealth boom — and the explosion in the number of multi-millionaires — has […]

The stateroom at the Lebua Hotel. Credit: Lebua Hotels

Last year a Bangkok restaurant hosted a lavish dinner that cost $25,000 a plate (not including tax and tip). For the money, guests flying in from the U.S., Europe and Asia got a 10-course feast prepared by top French, Italian and German chefs, starting with a foie […]

The most surprising news in Forbes’s latest Global Billionaire list isn’t that Bill Gates has been toppled as the world’s richest man. We knew that was going to happen months ago.

No, the biggest surprise is the rise of the Indian rich — four of the top eight billionaires in the world are from India. Topping […]

A new report by the IRS on America’s top 400 income-tax payers shows that the super-wealthy are gaining a larger share of the income pie, but are paying a lower share of taxes.
The report, obtained by my Journal colleague Tom Herman, profiles the so-called Fortunate 400 (as measured by adjusted gross income or AGI). The […]

A column in the Palm Beach Post by Jose Lambiet describes the rather bizarre predicament of Dru Schmitt, a multi-millionaire who made his money in medical data.
Mr. Schmitt sold his St. Louis-based company in 2005 for $260 million. On the same day that he sold the company he bought three prime pieces of land near […]

Anybody Home? A mansion in Greenwich, Con. for sale at Sotheby’s Realty online

I’m always amazed at how the richest neighborhoods are also among the most empty. If you walk down any side street along South Ocean Drive in Palm Beach, Fla., even at high season, the only people you see are landscapers and contractors. At […]