New study suggests that the Paris Hilton stereotype doesn't hold much water. Far from being irresponsible and extravagant, the teenaged children of wealthy U.S. families are, by and large, pretty responsible and reasonably hard-working, says a new study entitled Growing Up Wealthy, commissioned by PNC Wealth Management (WM). But their parents could still do more to help them understand the value of money.

"We see a generation of wealthy young people who are generally well-grounded, willing to work hard and see eye-to-eye with their parents on important values like education and earning a living," says PNC WM senior v.p Bruce Bickel. "Even if these teens were born with a silver spoon in their mouths, they don't expect life to be handed to them on a silver platter."

Disconnect

For example only 22% of the teens polled said they deserved to be rich because their parents happen to be wealthy as against 55% that were diametrically opposed to this assertion. Similarly, a mere quarter of the kids polled said they should be able to buy anything they desired.

The vast majority the high-net-worth parents -- 90% -- said they were instilling the value of hard work in their children and 80% of the teens said they were hearing that message loud and clear. Around two thirds of survey participants between the ages of 18 and 20 had full- or part-time jobs already.

As a whole though parents aren't instilling what Bickel calls the "five golden rules of meaningful money management" -- earning, saving, spending, giving and budgeting. Only 28% of parents had discussed the meaning of their wealth with their children; 11% of parents said that they avoided the subject completely. Only 27% of parents could say that they had discussed the family budget with their children.

"It is important to talk to teens about family wealth, but that conversation has to address the fact that wealth is not a right but a responsibility," says Bickel. "This is not happening as much as it should, as only half of our surveyed parents" -- 56% in fact -- "said they give [their teenagers] a regular allowance, which is the most basic tool to begin teaching children about money and responsibilities."

That may be why only 21% of the teenagers surveyed said they had saved any of their money, and only 9% actually invest any of it. This despite the fact that 63% of the parents surveyed have set up bank or investment accounts for their children.

Harris Interactive conducted the Growing Up Wealthy poll of 210 wealthy-family teenagers between the ages of 14 and 20 and 272 affluent parents with children under 18.

PNC WM is a unit of Pittsburgh-based PNC Financial Services. -FWR

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