News & Press Releases

Financial Loss Syndrome

Lee S Hausner, Douglas Freeman, Victoria Collins, Trust & Estates

June 1, 2009

There's a dramatic rise in emotional distress amoung the wealthy

Losing Millions can feel devastating. Here's how to cope

On a cold evening in January of 2009, 74-year old corporate titan Adolf Merckle drove to a railway embankment near his home in Germany and stepped in front of a moving train.

Once, Merckle had been a billionaire. In 2007, Forbes estimated his fortune at $12.8 billion. But, as the global recession took hold in late 2008, his net worth nosedived. Estimates put Merckle's losses at several billion. He was forced to relinquish control of a family business that had been founded by his grandfather in 1881 and that he'd grown into Germany's largest pharmaceutical wholesaler.

Still, in December of 2008, Merckle was one of the wealthiest individuals in the world-with an estimated $9.8 billion. Yet, he despaired and killed himself.

Many are surprised that people who remain fabulously wealthy, even after huge financial losses, should suffer catastrophic emotional crises. A decline in net worth from $100 million to $50 million is upsetting, maybe even devastating. But, usually, it will have little effect on a person's ability to live in a good home, feed and educate family, enjoy vacations, and retire comfortably-very comfortably. Such breakdowns seem more understandable for people who've been financially ruined.

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