Marlene Engelhorn, an Austrian-German heiress, is assembling a group of 50 Austrian citizens to determine how her $27 million fortune should be distributed. The 31-year-old inherited the fortune from her grandmother, who owned the German pharmaceutical company BASF until she passed away in 2022. Engelhorn has decided to donate 90% of the inheritance, but she needs help from the public to determine where the funds should go. Austria no longer has an inheritance tax, and Engelhorn created the Good Council for Redistribution to serve as quasi-politicians to redistribute her wealth to public-serving causes. Engelhorn is putting her full trust in the council, who must come to a “widely supported” decision before the funds are allocated accordingly.
Image via BBC
Read other stories from the 1/15/24 newsletter:
Comments