What's Going To Happen To Bill Gates' Fortune When He Dies

Microsoft founder Bill Gates is the fourth richest man on the planet and not to sound ghoulish, but what happens to all that money when he dies?

When most people die they leave behind a bit of money, maybe a house if they've got one and a wide assortment of curios and souvenirs picked up over a lifetime of buying random tat.

What happens to the big stuff is usually decided by a will and it's left to the kids to decide what to do with mum's collection of garden gnomes or that old rusting car dad always said he'd restore but never did.

For those of us lucky enough to be billionaires, it's a little bit different.

Bill Gates is the fourth wealthiest man in the world - only Tesla CEO Elon Musk, Amazon mogul Jeff Bezos and Louis Vuitton magnate Bernard Arnault are richer.

Alamy

While that sounds like great consolation for the kids who will be in line for some inheritance, the billionaire has been clear in the past that he's not going to leave the entirety of his vast fortune to his children.

Boasting a net worth of around $113 billion, Gates has said previously that he expects to give away most of his money to charity rather than to his children.

Along with investor Warren Buffett – the fifth richest man in the world – Gates had previously pledged to donate at least half of his fortune to charity before or on his death.

Since making the pledge in 2010 his net worth has more than doubled so there ought to be even more money to donate.

However, it might also mean there will be more money for his children when he's gone, as Gates had promised to leave behind a safety net for his family to guarantee their financial security.

Alamy

Gates has three children with ex-wife Melinda – Jennifer, Rory and Phoebe – and the billionaire has previously confirmed 'they are never going to be poorly off' but stressed they'd have to find careers of their own rather than rely on his inheritance.

Still, whatever they do get is likely to be substantial compared to the rest of us mere mortals.

The plan is for Gates to bequeath most of his money to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the charitable organisation the couple set up.

At 66 years old, nobody is expecting the Microsoft founder to keel over anytime soon and with the way his net worth has risen in the last decade the amount of money he has to give away is likely to grow even larger.

What he almost definitely won't do is splash his cash on cryptocurrency and NFTs, after he recently denounced them as relying on the 'bigger fool' theory that they always need someone dumber to come along and buy them off you.

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