When you're rich, so rich that your net worth is more than $10 million, one of your biggest challenges is the 'flu.

No, not influenza, but "affluenza," an ailment that causes offspring to lack motivation and become disenchanted with work because of your wealth.

While Canada's uber-rich have a predictable penchant for luxury cars and holidays, a new study by CIBC Woody Gundy advisory team T. Stenner Group and Vancouver's Sensus Research Inc. says they also have a heart.

Nearly 40 per cent of respondents ranked maintaining a strong work ethic and sense of values in their families as the main challenge of being wealthy, while keeping up with inflation was a distant second.

"We were worried that if we sent our children to private school, it might influence them in a negative way," says David Bentall, a Vancouver-based businessman, about his and his wife's decision on where their four youngsters should be educated. "But then we realized spoiled children are caused by (parents) spoiling their children."

Bentall estimates his net worth is about $10 million and has insisted that each of his offspring, now aged between 15 and 24, pay an increasing portion of their university costs each year they're in post-secondary school.

The 2006 Values and Views of Ultra-Affluent Individuals True Wealth Report, which Bentall responded to, included surveys completed last November and December by 165 Canadians with a net worth of more than $1 million each. About 85 per cent of the respondents had a net worth of more than $10 million and more than half had an average annual income of between $1 million and $5 million.

"I was surprised by how homogenous a group we were," says Bentall. "We buy German cars, stay at the Four Seasons and travel. .... We have more in common than I thought."

The top three brands of automobiles owned by respondents were Mercedes, BMW and Porsche. Almost half of respondents listed Four Seasons as the hotel where they were most likely to make a reservation and more than half ranked travel, followed by golf, as favourite activities.

But for this group, money wasn't merely to spend on self-indulgence. Three-quarters of respondents planned to give between 11 and 30 per cent of their estate away and 70 per cent donated more than $100,000 in the past year. Children's charities were by far the biggest beneficiaries, with 70 per cent of respondents saying this was the cause to which they were most committed.

Bentall, for example, has spent the past three years volunteering for a fundraising campaign for a children's camp. Not only has he made a "significant financial contribution," he has also been generous with his time — dedicating one day every week for the past few years.

"There are two main benefits of being wealthy," says Bentall, 50. "One is you get to enjoy some of the pleasures that life has to offer and (second) is philanthropy."

But being rich isn't just about worrying about spoiling your kids, spending money and being altruistic. Bentall works "more than 9-to-5 hours" in his company, Next Step Advisors. And his priciest purchase of late? He laughs: a new roof for his home.