In no particular order, here are some of the richest families with a lot of power!
12 - Walton Family The Walton Family is the richest family in
the world with an estimated net worth of 215 BILLION dollars!
Much of the family’s fortune is because of their stake in Walmart, the biggest retailer
in the world.
According to Bloomberg, there are over 12,000 stores worldwide that brought in around $524
billion dollars in revenue in 2019!
More estimates by Bloomberg show that the family earned roughly $4 million dollars an
HOUR, a metric that shows just how much money the family makes.
Thanks to Walmart’s success, three of the heirs – Jim, Rob, and Alice – have ranked
among the top 20 wealthiest people since 2001.
Although the late founder, Sam Walton, opened the first Walmart on July 2, 1962 in Arkansas,
he’d been in the business way earlier.
To conquer the retail space, Walton focused on establishing stores in smaller towns, contrary
to other chain stores that focused on larger cities.
Let’s just say that plan worked out!
11 - Mars Family Snickers, Twix, Mars Bars….these should
be all too familiar if you have a thing for candy!
These brands are all part of the Mars family, the second-richest family in the world with
an estimated 120 billion dollars!
The family’s roots can be traced back to 1911.
Franklin Mars, the founder, and his second wife tried a hand at the candy business in
Tacoma, Washington.
While the business failed, it no doubt set a foundation for Franklin in his later business
deals.
After the failed attempt, Frank launched the Mars Company as we know it today in 1920 after
moving back to his Minnesota hometown.
Today, the company has expanded beyond just the candy business.
It now includes pet food, animal care services, as well as other food products all around
the world.
Their entrance into pet care was marked by a $9 billion purchase of the VCA animal hospital.
With annual sales of over $40 billion dollars, Mars is among the biggest privately held corporations
in the US!
10 - Ambani Family Mukesh Ambani is the most prominent member
of the Ambani family.
He’s well known for his ridiculous $2 billion dollar home, which is the world’s most expensive
private residence!
To about 95% of us, that’s a whole lot of extravagance ,but it’s probably not much
to Asia’s richest man.
The Ambani family fortune is estimated to be around 81.3 BILLION dollars!
Mukesh is the largest shareholder of Reliance Industries Limited, which is India’s biggest
company by market value.
Reliance is the Ambani family’s biggest reason they’re rich, and Reliance owns the
world’s biggest oil refining complex.
The family patriarch Dhirubhai Ambani founded Reliance Industries back in 1966.
He weathered several business storms that made it into the giant it is today.
Amazingly, at the time of his death in 2002, he had no will in place.
That little oversight threatened both the business empire he had built and his family’s
unity.
Luckily, his wife stepped in and basically made a fair enough deal for the two heirs,
Mukesh and Anil.
9 - Wertheimer Family You’re probably familiar with the popular
fashion brand called Chanel.
Well, that’s the heart of the Wertheimer family’s fortune of 54.4 billion dollars.
The brothers Alain and Gerard Wertheimer are running the company, who’ve been working
at the company for over 40 years.
The brothers are now the third generation to run the family business started in the
1920s by their grandfather Pierre Wertheimer.
Well, technically Pierre didn’t start the company.
Chanel was already being run successfully by Coco Chanel, the founder and designer.
The founding Wertheimer joined the company when he financed Coco’s Chanel No. 5, an
iconic fragrance that’s still popular today.
The Wertheimers later bought Coco’s stake in the company in 1971 after she passed away.
Now the brand is under the complete control by Pierre’s grandsons.
Aside from the Chanel brand, Alain and Gerard also own vineyards both in France and the
US.
8 - Hermes Family The Hermes family is another family that has
the fashion industry to thank for their 63.9 billion dollar fortune.
The Hermes brand deals in a wide range of luxury fashion goods that include jewelry,
handbags, perfumes, and scarves among others.
But when the company was started in 1837, the focus wasn’t this wide.
Thierry Hermes, the founder, specialized in making harnesses solely for European noblemen.
The company saw a diversified inventory once his son and later, grandsons, took over.
And while it survived just fine for a long time, the 1970s had presented a rather shaky
landing ground.
Sales were on the decline despite other companies in the same space doing pretty well.
The fortunes turned around in 1978 when Jean-Louis Dumas took over.
He revamped much of the company’s offerings which skyrocketed annual revenues from $50
million when he took over to a whopping $460 million in 1990.
Today, Hermes takes in over $6 billion dollars in annual revenue, an indication that the
family’s wealth is going to be around for quite some time!
7 - Albrecht Family This family is worth 41 billion dollars, and
their fortune has been fought over many times.
The family has had quite a few legal battles over control of the vast empire, something
that isn’t anything new.
In the 1960s, the two brothers and co-founders, Theo and Karl Albrecht, decided to split the
company they had worked so hard to build.
Long story short, they couldn’t agree on the direction of the company.
So instead of just Aldi, today we have Aldi Nord and Aldi Sud with each of the brands
with thousands of stores worldwide.
They all can be traced back to their mom’s original grocery store!
Now with both the brothers on to the next world, Theo’s part of the fortune remains
contested.
At the center of it all is his daughter-in-law’s supposed flaunting of the family wealth.
Her lifestyle goes against the Albrechts' insistence on living a modest life.
This is something that Theo himself reportedly expressed concern over.
More concerns were voiced by his wife, Cilly, in her will.
She accused her daughter-in-law and the kids of blowing millions of dollars on luxuries.
In August of 2020, Theo’s grandson, Nicolay Albrecht, sued his own mom and his sisters
for allegedly embezzling funds from the family trust!
All these disputes have, of course, cast gloom over the survival of the empire.
But with the billions of dollars still rolling in every year, it’ll be a while before we
can see anything substantial.
6 - Thomson Family Canada’s richest family draws its 40.6 billion
dollar wealth from their 66% stake in Thomson Reuter.
They essentially are dealers in financial data and services.
The journey to the top began with Roy Thomson back in 1931 with his first media investment.
That was an Ontario-based radio station.
A year later, he added yet another media company into his portfolio by acquiring The Timmins
Daily Press.
Another year after that, he purchased The Scotsman newspaper.
You can guess what he kept on doing.
He continued acquiring controlling stakes in major media brands, which include the Sunday
Times and the Times.
Through his lifetime, Roy accumulated over 200 newspapers in Canada, the U.K, and the
U.S, making him Canada’s biggest media owner.
Besides the majority stake in Reuters, the family also owns The Globe and Mail newspaper
and they also have a stake in the telecommunications firm, Bell Canada.
5 - Boehringer/Von Baumbach Family This family is one of the oldest wealth empires
still surviving today.
The family has been around for the last 130 years and they’re still going strong.
At the empire’s center is the pharmaceutical company Boehringer Ingelheim founded by Albert
Boehringer in 1885.
That was the year when Albert bought a small tartar factory in Germany.
The following year, the factory began producing tartaric acid for use in the food industry
such as for baking soda and carbonated beverages.
The family has a net worth of roughly 45.7 billion dollars.
But of course, this is just speculation since the giant company the family has is still
completely privately owned and ran.
While Albert passed away in 1939, the company still became one of the biggest companies
in its niche.
Today, Boehringer is the second-largest pharmaceutical company in Germany and ranks among the top
20 in the world.
For the actual family, that’s pretty much all there is to know.
The Boehringer/Von Baumbach family is notoriously secretive.
Just like the Albrechts, they stay out of the limelight as much as possible, and they
hardly grant interviews.
Not much is known about them except, of course, that they’re behind one of the world’s
biggest drug manufacturers.
4 - Johnson Family The Johnson family is another wealthy dynasty
that prefers to stay in the shadows for the most part.
And that’s not only on personal matters but also much of their business interests.
But what’s known is that they have a 49% stake in Fidelity Investments, and it makes
up a significant portion of their 46.3 billion dollar empire.
Founded in 1946 by Edward Johnson the second, Fidelity has grown to a customer base of more
than 30 million people with over $3.5 trillion dollars in retirement savings.
By September 2020 figures, this makes Fidelity the second-largest mutual fund company after
Vanguard!
At the head of the family is the founder’s grand-daughter Abigail Johnson, arguably one
of the most powerful executives in the finance world.
She took over as CEO from her dad in 2014 and became the firm’s president two years
later.
Her position was only natural if you think about it.
She had been working at the company on a part-time basis since college.
She went full-time in 1988 after graduating from Harvard Business School.
With her 24.5% stake in the company, she’s worth $15 billion dollars, making her one
of the wealthiest women in the world.
3 - House of Saud The Royal family of Saudi Arabia being among
the wealthiest families shouldn’t come as a surprise.
The monarchy controls about 15% of the world’s oil reserves.
That gives the family access to an almost endless amount of wealth.
In fact, their combined net worth could be way much more than the estimated $95 billion
dollars since the total wealth is controlled by over 15,000 royals.
Besides oil, the royal family members also get much of their money from doing business
with the government.
Much of this business is through land deals or businesses that service state companies.
Saudi Aramco, for instance, is the most profitable company in the world.
It’s mainly controlled by the Saudi government – and we all know who the Saudi government
is.
Exactly how the Saudi royals spend their billions isn’t always an open book.
But the current Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman seems to be a different case.
The future king is known to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on yachts, mansions,
and art pieces.
His $450 million dollar purchase of Leonardo da Vinci’s painting is the most expensive
in history!
2 - Thai Royal Family Thailand’s King Rama X has always been known
for his extravagant lifestyle, which is a stark contrast to his father’s thrifty ways.
But maybe it’s not so surprising considering he’s now considered the richest King alive.
With a net worth of over $40 billion dollars, he’s miles ahead of some of the richest
hereditary rulers like the Saudi king, the British royal family, and the sultan of Brunei.
In theory anyways.
In some countries, just because you don’t own it, doesn’t mean you don’t control
it!
How the Thai Monarchy grabbed that much wealth has a lot of people in his country concerned.
To understand the situation, it’s important to look at how the monarchy’s assets were
managed before the current king’s reign.
Under Thailand’s constitution, again, before King Rama X’s reign, the wealth was controlled
by the Crown Property Bureau.
It was managed by a board of members, the majority of them appointed by the king.
The wealth was the Crown’s property rather than an individual monarch.
But in 2018 the Thai King overturned that ruling and thus moved the money to be under
his direct control.
That’s easily the shortest route to having a lot of money!
Thailand’s government has budgeted over a billion dollars to finance the monarchy
in 2020, all while Thailand’s economy is shrinking.
It’s most likely the Thai protests against the monarchy that were happening throughout
2020 will most likely still go on!
1 - Koch Family With estimated annual revenue of over $110
billion dollars, Koch Industries is the largest privately held company in the U.S.
This means the biggest shareowners – David and Charles Koch – get to enjoy a position
among the world’s wealthiest with a combined net worth of an estimated $110 billion dollars!
The two brothers each own a 42% stake in the company founded over 90 years ago by their
father, Fred C Koch.
And while the company has diversified its interests over the years, Koch Industries’
success is largely rooted in the refinery industry.
Back in 1940, Fred developed a great way of refining crude oil into gasoline thus launching
the company’s core business.
And it’s pretty much been responsible for the family’s big fortune.
Today, Koch Industries also deals with paper products, chemicals, and has a venture capital
fund as well.
While Charles and his late brother are the only Koch descendents with a stake in the
company, there were others as well.
For example, Frederick Koch and William Koch sold their stakes in 1983 after a legal battle!
Here’s what’s next!