The author doesn’t know much about the life styles of the rich and famous. None of these guys pay estate taxes. Those are for the peons!
All of these guys set up trusts long ago and they just draw salary and expenses from the trust. When they die the next generation sucks their livelihood from the same trust.
Oh, don’t try this yourself. The laws are written so it’s too expensive for ordinary mortals to join this kind of tax evasion lifestyle. You know, the kind of people Teddy spent his life “helping”.
My medium income brother looked at this possibility. It’s not so much expensive as it is a royal bookkeeping pain in the neck. All income has to be sent to the trust, all property has to be owned by the trust, all bills have to be paid by the trust. The rich can afford the bookkeeper to offload said pain.