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How to keep a billion dollar fortune in the family, South Korea style

South Korea has some of the world's highest death duties

money, south korea
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How companies manage to transfer wealth through generations is key to Korea’s longstanding business model

Yoojung Lee | Bloomberg
What to do if you’re a 95-year-old billionaire and you live in a country with inheritance taxes as high as 65 per cent?

That’s the challenge facing the family of coffee baron Kim Jae-myeong, honorary chairman of Dongsuh group, who built a fortune valued at $2 billion by the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Kim, who’s never appeared on an international wealth ranking, stepped down from management more than two decades ago, but the group remains firmly in family control, with each generation having to find a way to pass down the wealth without running afoul of the taxman.

It’s a common