Valuetainment - December 09, 2025


＂No Prenup, No Will＂ - Morgan & Morgan Founder BREAKS DOWN His BILLION DOLLAR Inheritance Blueprint


Episode Stats

Length

13 minutes

Words per Minute

187.54094

Word Count

2,577

Sentence Count

231

Misogynist Sentences

2

Hate Speech Sentences

1


Summary

How do you pass the wealth from one generation of investors to the next? In this episode, I sit down with Dan Rockefeller to talk about how he and his family passed the wealth down to his children and grandchildren.


Transcript

00:00:00.000 I'm at a family founders event at Goldman Sachs three weeks ago,
00:00:02.800 and I'm at a Solomon Partners event last night in Miami Beach.
00:00:07.180 Okay.
00:00:07.860 Both of them, they have Dallas at Ross Perot Jr. there
00:00:12.040 and the owners of the NASCAR family as well as Emmett Smith and others,
00:00:15.700 and they're talking about G2, G3, G4,
00:00:18.280 and how do you pass the wealth on to the next.
00:00:20.780 And then last night they had the founder of 1-800-Flowers,
00:00:24.640 the Perry Ellis family, and all these other guys that are in the room.
00:00:27.260 Similar type of conversation on how you pass it on.
00:00:29.720 The guy that was running Perry Ellis is the son of the founder of Perry Ellis,
00:00:32.260 so it was kind of like you got four kids, and you're a G1.
00:00:37.240 You made the money, and you made a lot of money.
00:00:39.940 So how are you setting up the estate planning and the living trust
00:00:44.340 and the expectation of which one of your kids comes into the business?
00:00:48.800 If one does not, then how do you set it up with the grandkids?
00:00:52.480 Then if they marry somebody else, like, oh, my God, I'm marrying a Morgan,
00:00:56.880 so I'm going to get the money,
00:00:58.240 and how do you protect your sons from who they marry
00:01:00.400 to make sure they're doing it for the right reasons?
00:01:02.860 How do you process the entire legacy planning with your wealth?
00:01:06.280 All right, first, all my children are married.
00:01:09.780 All my children have prenups.
00:01:12.200 In my estate, it works like this.
00:01:16.080 If you don't have a prenup, you don't take under the will.
00:01:19.080 Bingo.
00:01:19.360 So I become the bad guy.
00:01:21.360 And every time I tell people this, I don't know how old your kids are,
00:01:23.700 you will remember this, believe me.
00:01:25.920 So you don't want your kid to have to be the bad guy.
00:01:29.700 You're the bad guy.
00:01:30.740 So my kids can say, hey, my dad, my dad's my dad.
00:01:36.560 Now, if you don't want to sign it, we're not getting shit.
00:01:40.680 That's right.
00:01:41.100 And so that's the first thing.
00:01:44.320 The prenups are fairly tough.
00:01:47.640 Like, you know, one lawyer said,
00:01:50.600 this is the most egregious document I've ever read.
00:01:54.320 Egregious.
00:01:54.900 Egregious.
00:01:55.360 I'm sure you took it as a compliment.
00:01:56.600 I said, by design.
00:01:57.680 By design.
00:01:58.480 By design.
00:01:59.460 Yeah.
00:01:59.600 And so, but listen, all of my, the daughter-in-laws, the son-in-law,
00:02:05.780 I love these folks.
00:02:07.740 But I'm not going to have a situation where somebody can come in and,
00:02:13.400 you know, my one son, Matt, said, because he was the first one,
00:02:17.480 he's like, well, Daddy, maybe I put a clause in there that if I cheat on my
00:02:20.960 wife, that is a null and void.
00:02:24.100 I go, no, no, no, no, no.
00:02:25.620 Because we don't need to have any litigation.
00:02:27.860 He goes, I'm not going to cheat.
00:02:30.360 I said, I know you're not, you know, his mother's.
00:02:33.260 Good question to ask, though.
00:02:34.720 But he asked that question.
00:02:35.660 I said, let's just get the documents signed.
00:02:38.220 So I did that years ago in 2008.
00:02:41.560 I had, when everything crashed, I had everything appraised,
00:02:45.240 and I gave the big gift to them where you could give up to like $24,
00:02:48.340 $25 million.
00:02:49.280 So I did that.
00:02:51.060 I built a company called Litify, which was a software company.
00:02:54.660 And what I did with that, I took Litify, and I just put it all,
00:02:59.100 I put 20%, each one of my children, 20% for me.
00:03:03.480 We sold it to Besmer at a $600 million valuation.
00:03:07.240 We took 60%.
00:03:08.580 But when we sold it, all my kids got the money.
00:03:11.720 And then I used my 20% to toggle off and pay the taxes.
00:03:16.060 So they took it tax-free.
00:03:17.560 So I've done a lot of things.
00:03:18.780 You've got to do a lot of things de novo, early on,
00:03:21.380 where there's no basis.
00:03:24.140 And then the lucky thing for me is because my sons are lawyers,
00:03:29.800 then they get to take shares inside this firm.
00:03:32.880 And we build new cities.
00:03:34.100 Like, we're going to open in Chicago.
00:03:36.420 So they get to come in there de novo.
00:03:38.700 So my children make a lot of money inside the law.
00:03:42.820 But I have been very – that question has been in my mind, you know,
00:03:49.480 even when I didn't have it.
00:03:50.720 Go one more.
00:03:51.440 So what is Dan – what are you leaving to them to decide what to do with the grandkids?
00:03:59.260 Because, you know, you hear, like, the Vanderbilt story,
00:04:01.900 the money only lasted one generation and it was gone,
00:04:04.040 where Anderson Cooper's mom's like, I may be a Vanderbilt,
00:04:06.160 but don't expect Vanderbilt money.
00:04:07.800 It's gone, right?
00:04:08.620 And then you hear some of the Medici family and the Rockefeller family,
00:04:12.080 how they're able to bring it down to six, seven generations.
00:04:14.880 How are you processing it for your G3, for your grandkids?
00:04:17.660 Okay.
00:04:18.180 So the way I'm doing it is this.
00:04:21.780 In our will, when we die, if our kids have $100 million, they get nothing.
00:04:30.020 Because now remember, they're going to have –
00:04:32.200 I'm transferring shares of the firm to them.
00:04:35.100 So they're going to have that.
00:04:36.060 But they're going to get – if they have – they're going to get $100 million,
00:04:39.160 they get nothing.
00:04:41.300 We have an estate, I mean, a foundation that we hope to have, you know,
00:04:46.200 a billion-dollar foundation, and all of my money is going into the foundation.
00:04:52.760 And so – but some of my kids are already past the $100 million.
00:04:57.100 I mean, some of them are already – they're done.
00:04:59.800 And they're going to make a lot of money.
00:05:01.520 My kids are 42, 40, 38, 36.
00:05:04.680 Two years apart.
00:05:05.300 Two years apart.
00:05:05.960 Well, I'm Catholic.
00:05:07.160 You only stopped at four?
00:05:08.460 Well, let me tell you.
00:05:08.920 Because traditionals get like six, eight, nine –
00:05:10.680 Let me tell you the problem.
00:05:12.340 First of all, my wife's a devout Catholic.
00:05:15.020 The rhythm method does not work, especially when you're –
00:05:18.180 especially when you're drinking Jack Daniels on the weekend.
00:05:21.980 You know?
00:05:22.380 So, I mean, listen, man.
00:05:25.060 Every time I had sex, I had a – if I would piss on a rock,
00:05:28.000 there'd be potatoes growing in the morning.
00:05:29.500 So, you know, I'm very potent.
00:05:32.480 I had to finally get fixed because it just – I just – I never missed.
00:05:37.040 But –
00:05:37.240 That's respect.
00:05:38.000 That's respect.
00:05:38.560 Yeah.
00:05:38.900 Major.
00:05:39.100 But I had a hot wife, too.
00:05:40.400 There you go.
00:05:41.040 That's good.
00:05:41.520 That helps.
00:05:42.920 And so – but, you know, enough's enough.
00:05:46.980 I mean, we're doing things for our grandchildren.
00:05:48.960 We got the generational trust.
00:05:52.800 A guy down here that we recommend, a guy named Andy Cometor, is our tax guy.
00:05:58.020 And – but, you know, but when they were little, you know, I never wanted –
00:06:01.740 I wanted them to work.
00:06:02.740 They always had to work.
00:06:04.540 They never got to, you know, sit home.
00:06:06.960 They never got – you know, a lot of people go to high school
00:06:09.320 and they buy their kids Mercedes.
00:06:10.600 And, no, mine were driving eight-year-old Navigators
00:06:13.520 and they worked on the weekend.
00:06:14.860 And you got to keep them hungry.
00:06:16.860 What are you going to do with your grandkids?
00:06:18.860 I'm not going to – you know, who – I worry about it
00:06:21.460 because the grandkids – generation three is when it all goes to hell
00:06:24.780 in a hand basket.
00:06:26.100 And what I worry about is that they have lived – you know,
00:06:28.840 we flew down today in our G500.
00:06:31.240 My grandchildren, they don't – and that's what I worry about
00:06:34.520 because they lead my – when I go to – I live in Maui in the wintertime.
00:06:38.400 Dan just got married in Maui.
00:06:39.760 You know, my grandkids get to lead our life.
00:06:43.800 So I worry about that.
00:06:46.440 But you know what I think about?
00:06:48.020 I was like, you know what?
00:06:48.920 I'll be dead.
00:06:51.020 I'm going to let you guys worry about it.
00:06:53.120 Handle it.
00:06:53.600 You all handle it.
00:06:54.540 You all give me enough stress as it is.
00:06:56.920 Is one of the kids richer than the other kid?
00:06:58.800 Is there situations where one's done better?
00:07:02.200 And then how do you manage the competitiveness, the ego,
00:07:04.680 the envy, or the jealousy if there's any of that?
00:07:07.280 If there is, I don't know it.
00:07:10.120 I know they're all different tiers in age because, you know,
00:07:13.140 Dan, who you just met, he got out later, you know,
00:07:16.200 and Mike started first.
00:07:17.580 So there is that.
00:07:19.780 But at the end of the day, they all do different things in the business,
00:07:22.480 and some do better than the others.
00:07:25.120 But, you know, some deserve more than the others.
00:07:27.720 But is that – do you talk about it?
00:07:29.340 Do you say –
00:07:29.840 I don't really talk about it.
00:07:31.000 I talk about this.
00:07:32.060 I just say this about that.
00:07:34.720 Comparison is the thief of joy.
00:07:36.620 You've heard that.
00:07:37.360 Of course, yeah.
00:07:38.260 That's not my line.
00:07:39.440 I'm stealing it.
00:07:40.620 But I tell them, look, once you get a certain number, it's the same.
00:07:45.980 I mean, a guy who's got $100 million is leading basically the same life
00:07:50.840 as the guy that's got a billion, except for maybe a yacht, you know,
00:07:55.900 I mean, or some astronomical house.
00:07:59.760 And so it's not – I don't worry about that.
00:08:02.520 What I worried about when I was starting out was that they would never have to
00:08:07.680 struggle after leading the life they lived with me.
00:08:11.640 You know, I didn't make a million dollars until 1997.
00:08:15.980 28 years ago.
00:08:18.380 Yeah.
00:08:18.640 I mean, that's the first year I made a million dollars.
00:08:21.320 Stop it.
00:08:22.060 No, but let me tell you why.
00:08:23.740 This is a secret I'm going to give to everybody listening.
00:08:26.480 Because I kept taking all of my profits and pouring it in to new cities.
00:08:32.280 I mean, I was making a lot.
00:08:33.460 I mean, I was making –
00:08:34.220 So you were paper rich, but you were not cash rich.
00:08:37.620 No.
00:08:37.820 But, but look, all that pouring in, you know, last – this year we'll do, you know,
00:08:44.740 two and a half billion dollars in fees.
00:08:50.840 Once you catch up, once you catch up, the waterfall is – you know,
00:08:56.760 so when I tell people I made a million dollars, how?
00:08:59.200 You were 41.
00:08:59.980 I go, listen, because I was doing Jacksonville and Tampa and Atlanta,
00:09:04.260 and some of them were tough.
00:09:05.620 Some of them didn't make it.
00:09:06.700 You know, not didn't make it.
00:09:07.740 It took time.
00:09:08.880 So I was really building – so now, you know, we've got 7,000 employees
00:09:15.340 in all 50 states, and I still got some cities that have not –
00:09:21.760 that are still in the red.
00:09:23.160 Like, you know, New York City is still in the red.
00:09:25.800 But when I look at what it's going to be, when I look at my inventory,
00:09:29.340 when I look at L.A., it's going to be bigger than the core.
00:09:32.760 All those – that $2.5 billion, the expansion is going to be bigger than the core,
00:09:38.980 in my opinion.
00:09:40.280 So the great thing about that is when you invest in those startups,
00:09:44.620 you get to write off 40%.
00:09:46.240 So if I put, you know, $20 million in a city, I only have to put in $12
00:09:51.100 because, you know, it's a loss.
00:09:52.640 So what happens in these businesses, you come in, advertise red, red, red advertising,
00:09:58.460 you know, then you kind of flatten out.
00:10:00.140 You're not feeding the beast.
00:10:01.200 And then all of a sudden, you start getting your money back.
00:10:03.380 And then you cross the Rubicon, I call it.
00:10:06.420 You cross the Rubicon, and that's because I burn the boats.
00:10:09.720 When I go in, I'm burning the boats.
00:10:11.120 That's the river.
00:10:12.040 When you cross the Rubicon, you go from red to black,
00:10:15.260 and then it's just like a hockey stick.
00:10:17.740 When was that?
00:10:18.400 When was the moment for you where you're like,
00:10:20.720 we're about to make a lot of money?
00:10:22.940 And I'm talking exponential.
00:10:24.560 I'm not talking millions.
00:10:25.680 I'm talking we're about to fly.
00:10:27.600 Our private company is almost like a Fortune 100 company now.
00:10:31.820 I mean, when you see, I don't want to talk about my net,
00:10:34.200 but it was, you know, the last nine years just started.
00:10:43.180 And when it came, it poured.
00:10:48.900 Thank God.
00:10:50.460 Thank God.
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00:11:20.300 She was crying.
00:11:20.920 She was shaking.
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