(MONEY Magazine) – Can even the largest fortune protect your legacy after you're gone? Two current disputes, in which descendants of great industrialists are claiming the family ideals are being undermined, seem to offer different answers.

On one hand, heirs of the founders of Hewlett-Packard--who control 18% of the company's stock--want to block a $25 billion merger with Compaq. David Packard argues that the deal, which would result in 15,000 lost jobs, would destroy the egalitarian corporate culture his father worked hard to build. Partly as a result of his objections, the deal is expected to fall apart when put to a shareholder vote early next year.

On the other, descendants of Alfred Nobel, the 19th-century inventor of dynamite who endowed prizes for physics, chemistry, medicine, literature and peace, want the Nobel name dropped from the economics award, which was added only in 1968. The will contains nothing about economics, they argue; plus, Nobel doubted the field's ability to confer benefits on mankind. So far, the Nobel Foundation has no plans to change the name of the award.

--PETER CARBONARA