Are you familiar with the popular television show Shark Tank? Shark Tank features aspiring entrepreneurs pitching their investment ideas to seasoned investors like Barbara Corcoran. Corcoran actually refuses to do business with children of wealthy parents, citing her belief that: “[E]ntrepreneurs from a privileged background don’t have the need to have their business succeed, and that can make all the difference when their back is against the wall.”
That may not be true for all rich children, but it certainly rings true in the case of 40 year-old Robert Wilcox.
Wilcox is the son of wealthy parents and is by definition a “trust fund baby” who sponged off of his parents well into his forties. He is also gained a reputation for notoriety after suing his mother for his inheritance. In February of 2014, Wilcox hauled his mother into a New South Wales court and demanded that she relinquish control over her father’s estate to him. The presiding judge remarked that Wilcox: “..[E]xpected the estate to be handed to him on a plate, instead of allowing natural events to take their course.” The judge also made note of the fact that despite both Wilcox and his younger sibling had access to the best schooling, contacts and opportunities than most people their age, neither one had made any effort to become self-sufficient.
Indeed, Wilcox’s explanation for giving up on several businesses he started was that the businesses were “too hard” to manage.
The court case against his mother was predictably thrown out. Wilcox has, at this point, probably ensured that he will never see a dime of his inheritance.