Leverage is one of the easiest ways to create or to deplete a great fortune. It's all a bit like gambling, isn't it?

At some point in the wealth scale, it becomes more about safeguarding wealth for future generations and less about courting financial risks to acquire additional wealth...at least in families that have managed to retain their wealth over three generations.

It would be interesting to see how childrearing practices and values differ in old money families as compared to new.