The single largest concern and obsession of many rich is how to leave money to their children.

How much is too much? How can they be prepared? What is the ideal age to receive a trust fund?

Yu Pengnian, a Chinese real-estate tycoon, has some wise words for Americans pondering their children's windfall. Mr. Yu, who announced in April that he is giving away the last $500 million of his fortune to his charitable foundation (putting him over $1 billion of philanthropy), was asked whether his children are angry about the donations. His response:

'They didn't oppose this idea, at least not in public.' (It is a clever dodge. What rich child is going to announce: 'Forget charity. I need my yacht!')

Yet his Mr. Yu's greatest pearl of wisdom came when asked the question again by the Globe & Mail. Mr. Yu's response:

'If my children are competent, they don't need my money. If they're not, leaving them a lot of money is only doing them harm.'

Put another way, leaving your children tons of money is like telling them you don't think they can make it on their own. Too many wealthy parents focus on preventing their children from failing. But in doing so, they also deprive their children of the joys of self-made success.

The idea is all the more remarkable coming from a Chinese tycoon. In Asia, wealth is dynastic by nature. Businesses are created to be passed down through the generations. Wealth and privilege, in Confucian fashion, are truly all in the family.

Mr. Yu is a little eccentric-he wears white Mao suits and matching white shoes, with a bouffant hair-do dyed jet-black. Yet in his own way, the 88-year-old Mr. Yu is helping to shatter the traditions of inheritance. He says he is passionate about philanthropy because of his own poor upbringing, starting out as a street hawker in Hong Kong.

'Everybody has a different view of money,' he told the Globe & Mail. 'Some do good things with it, some rich people do nothing with it.…My goal is to be a leader, a pioneer who encourages rich people, inside and outside of China, to do something charitable.'

Do you think Mr. Yu is right about inheritance and competence?

很多富人最大的一个忧虑和关切就是如何将财富留给下一代。

多少才算过多？他们如何才能做好准备？何时才是获得信托基金的理想年龄？

对美国人思考的子女继承财富的问题，中国房地产界大亨余彭年有其独到的见解。他在四月份宣布将把自己最后5亿美元的资产捐献给他的慈善基金（基金总额将会达到10亿多）。当被问及他的子女是否对他的慈善捐献表示不满，他回答，他们不反对，至少不在公共场合反对。（真是明智的回答。哪个富人的子女会公开宣布说，“慈善算什么，我要我的豪华游艇！”）

然而，余先生最睿智的妙语还是在被加拿大《环球邮报》（Globe & Mail）问及同样问题时的回答，他说，如果我的孩子有能力，他们根本就不需要我的钱。如果他们不行，给他们很多钱只会害了他们。

换句话说，留给子女大笔大笔的钱就如同告诉他们，你不相信他们能够自力更生。太多有钱的父母只忙于阻止他们的孩子失败，而这样做同时也剥夺了孩子通过自我奋斗走向成功的快乐。

这个观点从一个中国商业大亨嘴里说出来尤其引人注目。在亚洲，财富从来都是世袭制。生意从来都是代代相传。财富和权力在儒家看来都是都有着明显的家族特征。

余先生看上去有点怪：他穿着白色中山装，配一双白鞋，一头蓬松的头发染得乌黑发亮。88岁高龄的余老先生以他自己的方式试图打破财富继承的传统。他说他很热心慈善，因为他自己出身贫寒，在香港做街头小贩白手起家。

他对加拿大《环球邮报》说， 每个人对钱的看法都不同，有人用它做好事，有些有钱人什么都不做……我的目标是成为一个领导、一个先锋，鼓励国内外的有钱人做慈善事业。

您对余老先生关于继承和能力的观点有何看法？