Author and scholar Chuck Collins offers an insider’s account of the ‘wealth defense industry’ and the inequality it perpetuates in his new book, “The Wealth Hoarders.” By Brenda Medina Image: Photo by Sarah L. Voisin/The Washington Post via Getty Images June 1, 2021

When Chuck Collins was 26 years old, he gave away his entire inheritance to groups working for social justice.

Born into a wealthy family (his great-grandfather, Oscar Mayer, founded a prominent national lunch meat company in the United States), Collins says he was exposed early in life to the world of wealth managers and came to realize the inequalities they help perpetuate. Now an author and senior scholar at the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington, D.C., Collins draws on his personal experience, extensive research, interviews with industry professionals and ICIJ’s own investigations for his latest book, “The Wealth Hoarders.”