royal weddings like Prince Harry and
Megan Marcos here in Windsor are
expensive Affairs the last royal wedding
for Prince William and Kate Middleton
cost an estimated 34 million dollars and
that's low compared to the price tag for
Prince Charles and Princess Diana's
wedding which is predicted to have total
to hefty 115 million in today's dollars
you've got to be pretty rich to foot
bills this big so just how rich is the
royal family
the personal finances of Britain's royal
family are kept very private but let's
try to break it down what we do know is
that queen elizabeth ii is the
wealthiest member of the royal family
Forbes estimates the Queen's personal
net worth is around 530 million dollars
that's a lot but for context not enough
to put her on the list of the world's
richest people so where does the Queen's
money come from it's a little
complicated but it can all be traced
back to three main sources her personal
wealth and income the sovereign grant
and the Privy Purse okay let's start
with personal wealth and income this
includes assets from the Queen's
investment portfolio and private estates
the Queen's personal investment
portfolio includes things like her
private jewelry and art then there's her
property like the Balmoral estate in
Scotland and the Sandringham Estate in
the English countryside
the Queen inherited both from her father
and their combined value is estimated to
be around 175 million dollars when it
comes to her personal income the Queen
also has a lucrative hobby horse racing
it's reported she's raked in nine
million dollars over the past three
decades from the sport
okay now let's look at the second source
of the Queen's money the sovereign grant
this is a lump sum the Queen receives
from the government to pay for official
duties things like receptions travel and
maintenance of the Royal Palaces the
sovereign grant for 2017 and 2018 is
around a hundred million dollars the
Duke of Edinburgh Queen Elizabeth's
husband receives an additional annual
allowance from parliament of nearly five
hundred thousand dollars to carry out
his public duties so where does the
money in the sovereign grant come from
the short answer is UK taxpayers in 2016
and 2017 the Queen collected around
ninety cents per person in the country
that's the cost of one single
first-class stamp okay let's go back to
the Queen's third source of income the
Privy Purse this is a fancy way of
referring to the money generated by a
very large plot of land property and
assets called the Duchy of Lancaster the
duchies main purpose is to provide
income for the Duke of Lancaster that's
a title that has represented the
reigning sovereign since $13.99 and yes
the Queen is sometimes referred to as
the Duke of Lancaster
estimated the value of the Duchy of
Lancaster is around 700 million dollars
the Queen receives an annual income of
around twenty five million dollars from
that the Queen's son Charles Prince of
Wales receives a similar income from the
Duchy of Cornwall
that's because he's heir to the crown
his estimated net worth is around four
hundred million dollars in total the
Queen's immediate family is valued at
more than 1 billion dollars while
Testaments for the younger generation of
Royals are around 30 million for Prince
William 7 million for the Duchess of
Cambridge and 25 million for Prince
Harry this all adds up to a lot of money
but sometimes people think the royal
family is worth even more
well it turns out a lot of the most
valuable assets aren't actually owned by
the royal family they're part of two
separate funds one is an organization
called the crown estate valued at a
whopping 17 billion dollars it's a real
estate business that includes major
chunks of property around the United
Kingdom the Crown Estate is managed by
an independent board of directors and
its profits go to the UK Treasury the
second fund is the Royal Collection
trust this includes a lot of the things
you had typically associate with
Britain's royal family we're talking
palaces famous art collections and of
course the crown jewels the total value
of the Royal Collection is estimated to
be around fifteen billion dollars but
since it's part of a trust that's passed
down from generation to generation the
Queen doesn't personally own these
valuable assets there's no question the
royal family is rich but simply
measuring up their assets might not give
us a full picture of their wealth it's
estimated the monarchies brand brings in
more than 1 billion dollars to the UK
economy every year now that's a number
fit for a queen
hey guys it's Elizabeth thanks so much
for watching
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