he was the son of the hecklingen preacher friedrich ernst sack and had 5 brothers. as his brother friedrich leberich sack died in 1773, he took over responsibility for his three children. he had no children of his own apart from an illegitimate daughter so he left most of his money to his brothers' descendants in a foundation. some 66,500 taler were distributed amongst some immediate relatives and the attorneys received 15,000 taler. this still left the vast sum of 247,747 taler for the foundation. this became a subject of much dispute because the graf of hoym had calculated that should the money continue to gain interest the funds would reach 1,083,168,426 taler after 200 years and would thus be more than the whole of the capital of the state of prussia. this issue was nicknamed "embarras de richesses".