This is what a family Money Talk sounds like
Take it from a billionaire.
Two Saturdays ago, I stumbled across an interview with a billionaire.
That alone isn’t unusual. The internet is overflowing with wealthy people explaining how they made it, and my algorithm knows exactly what will keep me distracted.
I had never heard of the man speaking in this clip. His name is Kenn Ricci. Before becoming a billionaire, he was President Bill Clinton’s personal pilot.
The interview — 31 minutes long, but clipped from a Wall Street Journal feature — wasn’t complex. Just a calm, matter-of-fact Money Talk.
Eight minutes in, things got interesting.
“We’ve chosen as a family not to disguise and not to hide from our wealth,” Ricci said. “And so we have family meetings every quarter. And we’re passing on wealth at this point in time. I’m not waiting until I die. I want to watch my kids enjoy their wealth.”
Our bank accounts couldn’t be more different, but our approach is the same. Ricci described money as something alive. Something you talk about, share and put to work. Not a secret to be tucked away for later.
Routine family meetings. Harsh but honest Money Talks. Passing on wealth and knowledge now, not in some distant future. It was everything we’ve been practicing at home.
Ricci goes even further with his family.
“We’re passing on wealth to them now, and we’re helping them manage through it, and we’re helping them navigate,” Ricci said. “We have a family limited partnership that any of the kids can borrow from to start businesses.”
He continued.
“Every year, once a year at the big meeting, I walk through the estate plan. What’s going to happen, like where does the money go, how does it get there?” Ricci said. “I start the meeting by showing my net worth. And I show them where the assets are. What companies we own. What the liquid money is? Who has the liquid money? How do you get to it if I’m not here? Whose the guys you call? Where does the money go? How do you get your share? How do you get your share?
“And then after I do that, I have all of them expose their net worth. And then they tell their siblings what they invested in, what they spend their money on. And then typically, after that, we pass on some wealth at those meetings.”
I immediately shared the clip in our family group chat with my mother and three brothers.
It took me back to November 2022, just two months into my investing journey, when I sent my mother a similar video and wrote: “He said put the family in it!!”
By July 2025, we had launched our own “Family Forward” meetings. No slides. No lectures. Just the overdue Money Talks we had never had.
Hearing Ricci describe almost the same approach felt less like instruction and more like quiet confirmation.
We’re on the right track.
A billionaire said so.
Absolutely. This is the way. Lead + share, which leads to engagement and preparation.
Dealt with two years of probate hell with my father's estate because he didn't have these talks with me. We've had some less formal versions of these talks with our kids. The billionaire writes off the family vacation as a "business expense" with this strategy as well.