After a long time together, the husband and wife have long been interlinked.
Janet saw what Simon was thinking at a glance and asked aliya, who had just brought coffee, to get her laptop. Although there is little work on weekdays, as the housekeeper of the Westeros, no one knows Simon's family better than Janet.
Turning on her laptop, Janet called up a document and said to Simon, "I just did some Statistics recently. Guess how much money you have now?"
Simon just looked at the document with a smile.
Janet is obviously easier to get a lot of accurate data than Forbes, so women's statistics are certainly more reliable than Forbes.
Simon's assets, the easiest to count, or a series of listed technology companies.
Affected by the continuous outbreak of the new technology wave, Cisco and AOL, which have great advantages in the industry and show ultra-high growth, have both exceeded the $10 billion mark in market value this year. Just these two companies have contributed more than ten billion dollars to Simon's personal wealth.
Other technology companies, such as Microsoft, Intel, Oracle, sun and so on, have also been rising rapidly.
Taken together, as of the last trading day of last week, Simon's total value of technology shares of all listed companies reached $21.7 billion.
Only this point is destined to surpass all the super rich in the world.
However, for Simon now, this technology stock asset is not the most important.
The most important thing, of course, is still Denise entertainment.
successfully completed the merger of MCA, not only showing no time to the dilemma of the Time Warner merger. Danielis entertainment has been developing rapidly in the past year. The rise of Pixar studio's 3D animation, the complete merger of EA game companies, the heavily stock holding of blockbuster share prices and the Osaka Universal Studios plan have made the Hollywood more and more consolidate the Hollywood. The most powerful entertainment company.
Compared with Time Warner, whose market value is still hovering at 10 billion US dollars, Denise Entertainment's current valuation can easily exceed 20 billion US dollars.
Danelis entertainment is just one of the "four women" in the westero system.
The other three women, cersei capital, igritte and melisandro, have also seen their rapid expansion in the past year.
The value of cersei capital is one of the most difficult to estimate. However, with cersei capital's comprehensive strength at this time, it is absolutely easy for the company to break through the market value of 10 billion US dollars if it goes public.
Igritte, which has an absolute leading position in the field of Internet online, has a more controversial valuation.
However, based on igritte's current revenue and the general p / E ratio of new technology companies, the Internet company's valuation has gone straight to $5 billion.
Melisandro seems to be the most inconspicuous of the four women. However, with the continuous increase of Gucci's revenue scale and the continuous merger of Vanke Yabao, CK and other companies, melisandro's valuation has steadily exceeded $3 billion.
So, just these four women could bring Simon about $40 billion again.
In addition, westero also owns a large regional telecom operator, formerly Bell Atlantic, now renamed Verizon Telecom.
As one of the most powerful regional telecom companies among the seven bell, Simon's bottom price reached $7 billion when the stock market was at its lowest point. The North American stock market recovered rapidly after the Gulf war last year. The wave of new technology also led to the rapid development of the telecommunications industry. If Verizon Telecom is re listed, its market value can reach 10 billion US dollars.
This is another $10 billion.
Then, westero system also invested in a large number of non listed companies such as Nokia, Qualcomm, ATI, and Simon's personal property and land. The total value of these two assets also exceeded US $5 billion.
Finally, although the westero system has experienced many loan mergers and acquisitions or bond financing in the past year, the overall debt of westero system, calculated comprehensively, is still only about $16 billion.
As a result, compared with the $35 billion offered by Forbes last year, Simon's wealth rose again to $60 billion this year.
Janet nestles up to her husband and goes through the documents together. Occasionally, she looks at the man who has finished a super snowball in just six years. This is her man.
After reading the information, Janet waited quietly for a while, and then said, "I think we need to speed up our preparations for the future."
The next thing, of course, is about the inheritance of wealth.
The personal wealth of 60 billion US dollars, even in 20 or 30 years, is enough to be ranked in the top of the global rich list. Now in 1992, it is far more than all the other rich people in the world.
For billionaires, the inheritance of wealth is always a difficult problem to avoid.Although occasionally I have the idea of no matter what flood it will be after my death, most of the time, Simon doesn't want the huge business empire he created to fall apart many years later.
In western society, inheritance tax is a difficult topic to avoid.
Because of this, when Simon and Janet got married, the woman did not give up her Australian nationality.
There is no estate tax in Australia.
With Simon's influence on Australia now, it is absolutely impossible for this country to restart the inheritance tax in the future.
In addition, the little guy was put in Australia to take care of Veronica. For more than half a year, the Johnston family also quietly registered Australian nationality for Melbourne westero.
It can be said that the westrow family, Simon is an American, Janet is an Australian, a little guy, has dual nationality.
This is actually some of the layout that the couple quietly made.
Of course, although there are still many problems, the road has come out step by step.
On the other hand, although he decided to pass on his wealth, Simon did not intend to split up these assets and give them to future children, but preferred the family foundation model.
The most important reason why American families such as Rockefeller, Morgan and Ford have been strong for a hundred years is the family foundation, which not only ensures that future generations can not squander the wealth left by their ancestors, but also ensures the long-term cohesion of the family.
On the original timeline, Damen classmates and Warren Buffet, who are everywhere calling for the rich to donate most of their property after their death, are just a cover up to discerning people.
Bill Gates had set up a foundation in the late 1990s. If the super rich really used all his wealth for charity, it would be impossible for him to remain at the top of the global rich list for many years.
So, where is Damen's money?
This is about the foundation structure established by Damen.
What the public often hear about is actually the Bill & amp; Melinda Gates Foundation, which is really a pure charity fund. However, Damen gradually sold Microsoft shares, but did not put the money into this fund, but another very low-key Bill & amp; Melinda Gates trust.
The latter is actually a family trust.
Damen's mode of doing charity is actually to allocate a certain amount of money from the trust fund every year and put it into the charity fund.
As for the trust fund, you can refer to the original timeline of jobs trust fund left after his death.
The trust fund of jobs family still paid estate tax after jobs died.
However, the proportion of estate tax is only 15%, which is obviously very low compared with the highest 50% of estate tax in the United States.
As for why family trusts only need to pay 15% estate tax, the main reason is that, according to the Convention, these trust funds have the nature of charity and must donate a certain amount of money to charity every year.
Although they have to do charity, these trust funds are also eligible for tax exemption.
It can be imagined that as long as the heirs can take good care of these trust funds, even if they need to donate a sum of money every year, the overall scale of this trust is likely to rise. Moreover, many trust funds also have a certain number of years of contribution.
After fulfilling the donation period, all the remaining assets belong to the family of the trust fund.
In this regard, the Ford family has done the best among the traditional American families.
Compared with Morgan and Rockefeller, the Ford family with the same long history, the total asset size of the family foundation has been rising for more than half a century.
In a word, the Bill & amp; Melinda Gates trust established by Damen is, in the final analysis, for the inheritance of wealth. However, in western society, just like racial discrimination, some things can be done, but it is better not to say them, or at least to find a high sounding reason.
This is a kind of political correctness.
Another Warren Buffett, a veteran tycoon, has also set up the Buffett Foundation very early.
Mr. Buffett's long-standing call for heavy taxes on the rich is also very false to Mr. Simon.
Because if the United States really levies heavy taxes on the rich, it will not be able to collect taxes on the old rich.
Warren Buffett only pays himself $100000 a year. In addition, Berkshire Hathaway has never had any dividend mechanism. Therefore, Warren Buffett is not a "high-income person" in theory, and naturally does not need to pay the "heavy tax" he calls for.
Moreover, although the federal government is also called on to raise corporate tax, Berkshire Hathaway, which owns an insurance company, has long owed the US government tens of billions of dollars in taxes by taking advantage of the tax loopholes in the US insurance industry (insurance reserves do not need to be taxed) in the original time line and converting corporate profits into insurance reserves,Mr. Buffett has claimed more than once that Berkshire Hathaway is actually an insurance company.
The reason is self-evident.
Simon and his wife's Simon & amp; Janet westrock foundation has been in operation for several years, but it's also a pure charity.
If you want to lay out the future inheritance, you need at least a trust fund.
Simon, who is only 24 years old this year, has suddenly set up a family trust. That goal is actually too obvious.
American law is not static.
Now that we are showing the posture of making arrangements for the inheritance of wealth, it is inevitable that no federal congressman or presidential candidate will find that his support rate is too low during the election campaign, so he will be used as a target to gain attention.
Robbing the rich to help the poor is something most ordinary people love. Even if the rich are robbed, the benefits will not fall on them.
This is also an institutional defect in western society.
Sometimes, for the sake of voting, the ruling party will not consider whether the proposed initiative will harm the long-term interests of a country.
On the original time line, France's super high tax on the rich is the most typical representative.
As high as 70% of the rich tax, directly forced a large number of French rich out of the country, the French economy also suffered a serious impact.
In my memory, this tendency also appeared in the United States.
Young female legislators from the bottom of the class called for a tax of more than 70% on the rich to rob the rich and help the poor. For a time, they were in the limelight.
This society has never been fair.
There is nothing wrong with the pursuit of fairness, but if this pursuit exceeds a certain limit, it is unfair to another group of people.
If the pursuit of fairness is completely out of control, people will starve to death.
As his thoughts flew, Simon heard Janet's words, nodded, then shook his head and said, "yes, but not too obvious. At least, it's not the right time to set up a trust fund. "
Janet naturally understood Simon's concerns and said, "I know. I'm thinking, next, we should increase our investment in overseas."
Although the United States is a global tax collector, if it puts more assets overseas, it will certainly have more room for operation.
Otherwise, the rich in the United States would not hide trillions of dollars of wealth outside the United States.
Melisandro is headquartered in Switzerland, Nokia is headquartered in Finland, and cersei capital is also registered in overseas tax havens. This is actually Simon's instinctive overseas layout.
In the following days, as long as the couple had time, they quietly discussed the next development of the westero system.
Although plans can never keep up with changes, it is better to have plans than to have no plans.
Unconsciously, August passes quietly.
In addition to Clint Eastwood's new film "unforgivable" released on August 7, there are no other blockbusters at the end of the summer season.
Such a figure in September is even more unique in the whole list.
With the continuous release of Microsoft's share price, Damen's wealth has reached 7.5 billion US dollars this year, but in front of Simon's 65 billion US dollars, he still can only look up to it.