Mapping The Richest Families In The World

For starters, mutual funds are the largest entity, and have been around since 1924. Hedge funds didn’t come to life until around 1950 and for ETFs, this stretched to the 1990s. Hermes, a luxury French fashion brand, is known for its characteristic scarves, neckties, and perfumes, as well as its renowned Kelly and Birkin purses. Thierry Hermes designed aristocratic riding attire in the nineteenth century.

Today, Adelson's widow Miriam owns more than half of the gambling empire. New York-based Lauders of cosmetics-maker Estee Lauder entered the list as the combined wealth of 25 richest families showed their net worth was worth $1.7 trillion as they gained $312 billion in past one year. TheDassaultfamily which owns the aviation company also entered the elite rich list. The richest family in the world by a long shot, the royal House of Saud, which has ruled the country that bears its name since 1744, is estimated to be worth an absolutely eye-watering $1.4 trillion (£1.1tn). The owners of French luxury goods firm Hermès, the Dumas family has an estimated combined fortune of $49.2 billion (£36bn) according to Bloomberg. The clan's company was founded by patriarch Thierry Hermès in 1837 and started out as a Parisian harness workshop, before branching out into the high-end fashion and luxury goods business.

Following the tunnel vision of great-great-granddad Warren, scion Brendan recently became chairman and CEO of Bechtel Group, the largest construction company in the United States. More than 100 years ago, Frank Mars founded the Candy company, Mars. Despite the infamous candies from Mars-like M&Ms, Snickers, Twix, and Dove, it has been earlier reported by FOX Business that pet-care products are the source of over 50 percent of the company’s revenue. The Waltons’ wealth does exceed the wealth of the second richest man in the world, Jeff Bezos, whose worth is currently $205.4 billion, as per Forbes. Although, according to Bloomberg’s September report, the Mars and Koch families have not made it to Bezos’ wealth. The company started up in early 2020, state records show, several months before the Walton's family office transferred $48 billion to a separate trust established to divest the clan's shares in the retail giant.

Now son Henry runs the businesses with help from his daughter Sonia, who oversees the Rosewood Hotel Group (including the Carlyle and Hôtel de Crillon), and son Adrian . Check out below to know more regarding the three wealthiest families in the world, as reported by Bloomberg. To develop the list, the ranking excluded first-generation fortunes (like Jeff Bezos’s or Bill Gates) and those fortunes controlled by a single heir.

The Baring family, owners of an important merchant bank in London in the 18th to 19th centuries.

The fashion empire Kering now owns brands including Stella McCartney, Saint Laurent and Alexander McQueen, and is run by Pinault's son François-Henri, who is married to Hollywood actor Salma Hayek. Brothers Raymond and Thomas Kwok are property magnates with an empire that includes real estate in Hong Kong and China. Their late father Kwok Tak-Seng created Sun Hung Kai Properties in 1972. Brother Walter, media bar tv who died in October 2018, was at the helm from 1990 to 2008, then Thomas and Raymond assumed the running of the firm, with their mother Kwong Siu-hing as key shareholder. However, Thomas was jailed for five years in 2014 on corruption charges and was only released in early 2019. Samuel Curtis (S.C.) Johnson started out with a flooring company in 1886, before developing his famous floor wax.

His three grandchildren inherited an estimated 13% stake in the company, and granddaughter Ronda Stryker has sat on the board of directors since 1984. The Saudi royal family has a tremendous monarchical history, and the massive fortune of the family is estimated to be around $100 billion. The wealth has been growing over the years due to the decades of payments from the Royal Diwan, which is the king’s executive office. One of the oldest Belgian brewers has a history extending back more than 500 years. The family can be traced to 1535, and Van Damme clan joined the efforts of the De Mevius and De Spoelberch in 1987, and there was the formation of Interbrew. The merger is of a total of three families, and significant stakes are handled by the Spoelberch.

Dirk, Robert and Daniel Ziff are heirs to media conglomerate Ziff Davis LLC, which was originally founded by their grandfather, William Bernard Ziff Sr., as a publishing company in 1927. E&J Gallo Winery, a global leader in the wine industry, today is run by their descendants. The wealthiest dynasties in America also have seen many bitter battles over inheritance and power, though some have quietly risen to the ranks of the elite without too much media scrutiny. By 2022, only Charles Koch and David Koch were running the industries, but the duo stopped after the death of David Koch in 2019, and most of the stakes when to his wife.

President Biden and congressional Democrats in the United States have suggested a slew of tax reforms aimed at the wealthy. Oxfam projects that by 2030, 3.3 billion people will be living on less than $5.50 per day. “This is a family that is incredibly wealthy,” Sanders said of the Waltons before the wage increase took effect.

According to Wealth-X's 2021 billionaire census, nearly 60 per cent of billionaires last year were "self-made". The Waltons who own the US retail company topped the list as luxury dynasties increased their wealth, however, the wealth of the Samsung family fell last year. Luxury goods dynasty Hermès is the basis for the Dumas family fortune. Its origins trace back to the 1800s when Thierry Hermes began making riding gear for noblemen, Bloomberg reported. Founder James Cox's five grandchildren share the family fortune, according to Forbes.