Chasing Stars in Hollywood

After spending so much time together, the couple had become highly attuned to each other's thoughts.

Janet immediately sensed what Simon was thinking and asked Alia, who had just brought in the coffee, to fetch her laptop.

As the manager of the Westeros household, no one understood Simon's wealth better than Janet.

Opening her laptop, Janet pulled up a document and said, "I recently did an estimate. Guess how much you're worth now?"

Simon merely smiled and looked at the document.

Janet had easier access to accurate data than Forbes, so her estimates were undoubtedly more reliable.

The easiest assets to tally were the shares of various publicly listed tech companies.

Thanks to the ongoing tech boom, the market value of Cisco and AOL, in which Simon held significant stakes, had both surpassed $10 billion this year.

With his high proportion of shares in these companies, just these two alone contributed over $10 billion to Simon's personal wealth.

Other companies like Microsoft, Intel, Oracle, and Sun Microsystems also saw their stock prices soar over the past year.

Summing it all up, as of last week's final trading day, the total value of Simon's holdings in publicly listed tech companies had reached $21.7 billion.

This alone already exceeded the wealth of any other billionaire in the world.

However, for Simon, these tech stocks weren't his most significant assets.

The most important asset remained Daenerys Entertainment.

After completing the merger with MCA last year, Daenerys Entertainment didn't experience the struggles that Time Warner faced post-merger; instead, it continued to grow rapidly.

Over the past year, Pixar's rise with 3D animation, the full acquisition of EA Games, the soaring stock price of Blockbuster, and the launch of Universal Studios Osaka all contributed to Daenerys Entertainment solidifying its position as Hollywood's most powerful entertainment company.

Moreover, it stood alone at the top.

Thus, compared to Time Warner, which was still hovering around a market value of $10 billion, Daenerys Entertainment's valuation could easily exceed $20 billion.

Yet, Daenerys Entertainment was just one of the core 'four women' in the Westeros system.

The other three—Cersei Capital, Ygritte Corporation, and Melisandre Company—had also rapidly expanded over the past year.

Cersei Capital's value was the hardest to estimate.

However, given its current performance, if Cersei Capital went public, surpassing a market value of $10 billion would be a breeze.

Ygritte Corporation's dominance in the internet sector was becoming increasingly apparent, and its valuation was highly debated.

Based on Ygritte's current revenue and the prevailing price-to-earnings ratios for tech companies, a conservative estimate would place the valuation around $5 billion.

Then there was Melisandre, which seemed the least conspicuous among the four but steadily grew in value as Gucci's revenue increased and it acquired companies like Van Cleef & Arpels and Calvin Klein. Melisandre's valuation comfortably surpassed $3 billion.

Thus, these four companies alone could contribute approximately $40 billion to Simon's wealth.

Additionally, the Westeros system held a large regional telecom operator, formerly Bell Atlantic, now renamed Verizon Communications.

During the stock market's lowest point, Simon acquired it for $7 billion.

Following the rapid recovery of the North American stock market after the Gulf War and the tech boom boosting the telecom industry, Verizon's current market value could easily reach $10 billion if it went public again.

That's another $10 billion.

Moreover, the Westeros system had investments in numerous private companies like Nokia, Qualcomm, graphics chip developer ATI, and Tinkobelle, the owner of the C Girls brand. Together with Simon's real estate and land holdings, these assets totaled around $5 billion.

Finally, despite several loans for acquisitions and bond financings over the past year, the total debt of the Westeros system was only around $16 billion.

Subtracting liabilities from assets, Simon's net worth had surged to $60 billion this year, compared to Forbes' $35 billion estimate last year.

Janet, snuggling next to her husband and occasionally glancing at the man who had turned a small fortune into a super-sized snowball in just six years, felt proud.

This was her man.

After finishing the documents, Janet waited quietly for a moment before saying, "I think we need to start preparing for the future."

Future matters naturally referred to wealth inheritance.

With $60 billion in personal wealth, even twenty or thirty years later, it would still rank high on the global rich list. In 1992, $60 billion was far beyond what any other billionaire in the world had.

For billionaires, wealth inheritance was an unavoidable issue.

Though Simon occasionally entertained thoughts of "I don't care what happens after I die," most of the time, he didn't want the vast business empire he had built to fall apart in many years.

In Western society, inheritance taxes were a significant concern.

For this reason, when Simon and Janet married, she did not renounce her Australian citizenship.

Australia had no inheritance tax.

Given Simon's influence in Australia, the country would likely never reintroduce it.

Moreover, placing their little one in Australia with Veronica for care, the Johnstons had quietly registered Melbourne Westeros as an Australian citizen over the past year.

Thus, the Westeros family now had Simon as an American, Janet as an Australian, and their little one holding dual citizenship.

These were some of the couple's quiet arrangements.

Of course, there were still many issues to consider, but the road was made step by step.

On the other hand, while Simon decided to pass on his wealth, he didn't intend to split these assets and give them to his future children individually. Instead, he preferred a family trust model.

In the U.S., families like the Rockefellers, Morgans, and Fords remained prosperous for over a century largely because of family trusts. These ensured that descendants couldn't squander the wealth left by their ancestors and maintained long-term family cohesion through a unified family foundation.

Conversely, the Getty family, which was once powerful, disintegrated quickly after Paul Getty's death due to a lack of focus on wealth inheritance, and now it was almost forgotten.

In the original timeline, Bill Gates and Warren Buffett, who publicly pledged to donate most of their wealth after their deaths, were often seen as using philanthropy as a facade.

Bill Gates had established a foundation in the late '90s. If he had genuinely donated all his wealth to charity, he wouldn't have remained the world's richest person for years.

So, where did Gates' money go?

It resided in the Bill and Melinda Gates Trust.

This family trust operated by allocating a portion of funds annually to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, a purely charitable organization. The trust's assets, however, were managed for the family's benefit.

Steve Jobs left a similar family trust, which paid only 15% inheritance tax compared to the usual 50%, because it had charitable obligations.

These trusts often grew in value despite annual donations due to their tax-exempt status and investment returns.

The Ford family excelled at this, maintaining their family's wealth and control over a substantial foundation for over half a century.

Bill Gates' trust ultimately aimed to preserve wealth while maintaining a philanthropic facade. It was a strategic way to protect and grow family wealth.

Warren Buffett, who often advocated for higher taxes on the wealthy, structured his finances to minimize personal tax liability. With a low annual salary and no dividends from Berkshire Hathaway, he avoided high taxes while calling for them.

Such contradictions in public calls for higher taxes versus personal financial strategies were common among the super-rich.

The Westeros Foundation had been operational for several years, serving purely charitable purposes.

For future inheritance planning, a family trust was necessary.

However, Simon, being only 24, establishing such a trust now would draw unwanted attention.

Laws could change, and any sign of preparing for wealth transfer might provoke political exploitation by those seeking votes.

Excessive pursuit of fairness often led to significant inequities and societal harm, as seen in policies like France's 70% wealth tax, which drove wealthy individuals away and damaged the economy.

Simon, thinking about Janet's suggestion, nodded but added, "We can, but not too obviously. At least, it's not suitable to establish a trust fund now."

Janet understood Simon's concern and said, "I know, but I think we should increase our overseas investments."

Though the U.S. taxed globally, having more assets abroad provided greater flexibility.

Many U.S. wealthy individuals hid trillions of dollars overseas for this reason.

Melisandre's headquarters were in Switzerland, Nokia in Finland, and Cersei Capital was registered in an offshore tax haven—part of Simon's broader overseas strategy.

In the following days, the couple quietly discussed the next steps for the Westeros system whenever they had time.

Plans could change, but having one was better than none.

Unnoticed, August slipped by.

As the summer box office season ended, apart from Clint Eastwood's "Unforgiven," released on August 7, no other hits emerged.

In the first week of September, Forbes magazine released the 1992 list of the 400 wealthiest Americans.

Despite lacking official data from the Westeros system, Forbes' estimate of Simon's wealth closely matched Janet's private tally.

In fact, Forbes estimated even higher at $65 billion.

The extra $5 billion came from Forbes' more optimistic valuation of Ygritte Corporation and a higher estimate for Daenerys Entertainment.

Thus, with $65 billion, Simon's wealth was head and shoulders above the rest.

Bill Gates, in second place, had seen his wealth rise to $7.5 billion with Microsoft's stock surge, but he was still a distant second to Simon's $65 billion.

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