<div>“By far the biggest handover ever to the next generation is about to happen,” PWC and UBS noted in a 2016 report on billionaires. “Without careful planning, many of today’s fortunes will suffer substantial erosion.” The problem is most acute in the US and Europe, where about a quarter of the billionaires on the index are age 80 or older, compared to 20 per cent in Asia. </div>
<div>In mainland China, where only chemical maker Xu Chuanhua has reached that milestone, just 3 per cent of the wealth is in the hands of the elderly, with about 40 per cent held by billionaires under age 50. </div>
<div>Russians have their own version of the headache, with private wealth controlled mostly by a generation of businessmen who profited from the chaotic post-Soviet economy. For those billionaires, passing the business on isn’t an option when so much of the value is tightly woven into personal connections at the Kremlin.</div>