The Walton family, of Walmart fame, is said to have an estimated net-worth of about $482 billion. The late Sam Walton was the founder and none of his children or grandchildren work for Walmart, although one of them sits on the board and an in-law chairs it. The family still holds about a 45% stake.
An article dated December 11, 2025 from CNBC Inside Wealth shares how some of the Walton family rising generation heirs are following a trend among rising-gen members of wealth-creating families: defining their passions and using the wealth to make positive impacts on society and the world.
Lukas Walton, for example, founded Builders Vision and S2G Investments and he focuses on sustainable food & agriculture, energy and oceans and has been named to the Time 100 Climate Leaders List. Rather than simply picking investments, his team uses a systems approach to collaborate with reform-minded organizations to shift entire sectors towards positive environmental impact.
Lukas’s cousin, Ben Walton and his wife, Lucy Ana, use Zoma Capital to support water scarcity and economic development initiatives in Colorado and Chile.
Both of these examples describe a growing trend of children and grandchildren of wealth creators using the family resources to make the world a better place.
My friend and colleague, Dennis Jaffe, is quoted in the CNBC article as saying, “The next generation, when they have great amounts of wealth, are less concerned with how to make more wealth, and more concerned with the issue of, what do we do with it.” I’m seeing this trend in my family clients who generally have much less financial wealth than the Waltons .
More importantly, for all the families who have more (or much more) than they need for the basics of life and whatever wants and desires they choose, engaging the rising generation in making the world a better place can be done early and with intention. More and more frequently, I’m seeing wealth creators, many of whom are self-made, and for whom making money was sometimes survival or at least more financial security, integrating purpose, values and social impact when their kids are still quite young. They instill children with a sense of gratitude for all the family has attained through hard work and then go the next step, engaging even young ones to understand things in the world that can be improved and getting them involved in deciding which causes to address and how to not only give money but also get their backs into it!
Yes, even before kindergarten kids can make sandwiches for people who do not have enough to eat, help take care of animals so that they will be adopted from a shelter, and accompany older family members delivering meals to isolated seniors (who are also thrilled to see a cute little one helping out).
One family I was involved with had a religious tradition of taking care of Mother Earth. Well prior to kindergarten family discussions centered around this commitment and the family would take long walks around their neighborhood and pick up trash along the way to dispose of properly at home. This led to the kids spontaneously picking up trash when they’d come across it on family vacations in other countries. One of the daughters went to school for environmental engineering and specialized in environmental sustainability.
Another family was committed to increasing access to healthy food. When kids were too young to serve food at the local soup kitchen, they would accompany mom and dad on volunteer days and do everything from sorting donated canned goods to wrapping up toiletries for patrons who needed them. As these kids grew older, they volunteered their summers in a camp for poor and homeless kids in the same town as the soup kitchen and experienced up close how hard life could be for some people. As these kids followed their own passions professionally, these early experiences kept them connected to issues of hunger and injustice in the world as they moved into their own lives and they continued to find ways to give back and make an impact.
It is great to see the rising generation in super-wealthy families making a positive impact like the Waltons. And I love that the trend is happening in much lower levels of wealth and with much younger stewards!