From Morning Brew, December 20:
Nicolas Puech, a billionaire descendant of the founder of Hermès, is seeking to adopt his 51-year-old former gardener.
A billionaire’s former gardener could be bequeathed a fortune, and he doesn’t even have to carry his employer up the slopes of Mount Doom to get it.
Nicolas Puech, a billionaire descendant of the founder of French luxury designer Hermès, is seeking to change the fate of his fortune by adopting his 51-year-old former gardener. The green-thumbed gentleman, if adopted, would stand to inherit at least half of Puech’s estimated $13 billion estate.
It’s a big if. Adult adoption laws in Switzerland, where they live, are strict and have complex requirements. Adoption aside, Puech’s plan faces legal obstacles from his own charity, the Isocrates Foundation, with which he has an inheritance contract. If Puech, who is not known to have children, were to suddenly adopt an heir, at least 50% of his Hermès shares would go to a son instead of the foundation, which called the potential move “void and unfounded.”....
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