As the second generation of America's top rich families enters an advanced age and retreats into the background, the wealthy are undergoing a change of dynasty and a collective change of power...
But the legendary "rich but not three generations" in front of the top rich old money family, it seems that there is not much convincing...
In fact, rich people not only have no wealth to shrink, but may also be more proud...
Today we will take a brief inventory of the wave...
The richest family - the Walton family
As early as the last century, the Walton family relied on the wealth brought by Sam Walton's self-made global famous chain retailer Wal-Mart and won the title of "America's richest family".
After the completion of Wal-Mart's global expansion, the Walton family then established their own Avister Bank, which was once shamefully rejected by the bank, and also acquired a local newspaper in Benton County to advertise their own business.
The Walton family has grown to nearly $250 billion. Even if you look at the bank alone, it is enough for their whole family to be at the top of the Forbes rich list...
And in the matter of preserving wealth, the late founder Sam Walton was also prescient...
Sam has a total of four children, Rob, John, Jim and Alice Walton, when he was alive, he found that several children were not interested in the company's management, so he introduced professional managers early, and also stipulated that family members could not hold more than 40% of stocks, could not interfere in the company's operations, and everyone used stock dividend income to survive...
Except for the second son John, who died unexpectedly, the remaining three heads of the family who hold wealth are now old, and the wealth in their hands is not much different, and they are being transferred to their next generation in the "Buddhist lineage"...
The eldest son, Rob, is 78 years old and worth more than $60 billion. After Sam Sr.'s death, Rob served as chairman of the board, positioning the company in favor of supervisors and family representatives.
Rob has three children, Little Sam, Carrie and Ben, and with the exception of Carrie, who is a board member of the Walton Family Foundation, there is very little information about the others, all of whom are very low-key.
In 2015, Rob passed his chairmanship to Carrie's husband and retired himself...
Sam Sr.'s other son, 74-year-old Jim Walton, worth about $60 billion, replaced his brother John on Walmart's board of directors after Sam Sr.'s death, and later transferred to take over the management of Avister Bank because of his interest in the bank, and is currently the chairman of the banking group.
Jim's team has four babies, Alice, Stewart, Tom, James...
Stewart was elected to the board in 2016, the first member of the third generation of the family to enter the leadership, and his daughter Alice became the chairman of the family foundation.
Stuart Walton, Tom Walton
And Old Sam's youngest child Old Alice, also worth more than $60 billion, because she was single after divorce, has always been called a "golden single girl", currently has no children, and the heir is to be determined...
As for John's fortune, which died early, it was inherited by his son Lux, about $23 billion, after his death in '05, and Lux is now part of the family foundation and the owner of an investment company.
In general, the Waltons family is very low-key, and their investments have always been mysterious, but they have not completely separated from the company, and for generations there have been people who pursue their dreams, and some who stick to the family business...
Unity of the Buddhist lineage may be the main reason for the longevity of their family's wealth...
Wolf Workaholics – The Koch Family
In the 20s, the Koch family made their fortune in industry, Fred Koch Sr. obtained a technology patent to refine heavy oil into gasoline, opened an oil refinery in Kansas, and later founded Koch Industries, one of the largest private companies in the United States.
Fred Sr. has four sons - Fred Jr., Charles, twins David and Bill, but compared with the calm and low-key Walmart family, the second generation of the Koch family is not a fuel-saving lamp...
At the end of the last century, the four brothers had many disputes over the dividends paid by the family business, and were divided into two camps, Charles and David, Bill and Fred Jr., and engaged in a family infighting that could be called the longest and most wealth-consuming in history - the Koch case.
During this period, the two sides were impressed by Bo Court, competed for charitable donations, hired private investigators to investigate each other's black materials, and also sacrificed the interests of the company in order to bring down each other...
Perhaps the family wealth value is too large, this infighting did not make the family wealth dissipate, and in the end the winner was workaholic Charles and David, and the other two brothers completely left the company and left the scene...
Under the joint operation of Charles and David, the company's total annual revenue is as high as 125 billion US dollars, and it is growing at an annual rate of 10 billion, and it also has a pivotal invisible position in American politics with financial strength...
The corporate atmosphere also follows Charles's style of work, fierce competition, open and dark fighting, the use of elimination system, the company's sales are prosperous...
In 2019, David died of cancer, and Charles became the only second-generation member still working in the company.
He is also chairman and CEO of Koch Industries, owns 42% of the company's shares and absolute voice, is still working at the age of 87, and is worth about $60 billion.
But fortunately, there are only two candidate heirs in the Charles family - Chase and Elizabeth, who has voluntarily withdrawn from the competition and runs a nonprofit organization on her own, which has little to do with the family business.
Therefore, the only internal successor is his son Chase, who is training in the company and is about to take over a hundred billion dollar enterprise, and the infighting that consumes the family will not happen again...
Chase, Charles
Turn offensive to defensive – the Lauder family
The Estée Lauder Companies was first founded in 1946 by Mrs. Estée Lauder, which has been a family business for 77 years...
Although Lauder started from scratch, according to the evaluation of the outside world, the real growth of the group is actually in the hands of the second generation of heirs, the eldest son Leonard.
Leonard is not airborne, but from the bottom to the leadership, diligent work for his mother for 24 years, during his tenure practiced a lot of radical ideas, helped Estée Lauder expand internationally, expanded the company 17,000 times, and was rated as a well-deserved "corporate soul"...
At the age of 90, Leonard is still the honorary chairman of Estée Lauder, worth $18.4 billion.
His younger brother Ronald, because he was born into a wealthy family, had little business acumen and preferred to spend money, worth about $4.5 billion.
Leonard in the middle, Ronald on the right
Leonard handed over the CEO to his son William in 2004, when Estée Lauder was worth $7.82 billion. Although William took over, under the premise of maintaining a stable family relationship, he found that he could not make any effective achievements, so he took the initiative to give up the position of CEO and used a professional manager...
However, before hiring professional managers, the Lauder family also laid out in advance to ensure that their own people could occupy the core position of the board.
In addition to William, the two female heads of the third generation of the family, 53-year-old Erin and 49-year-old Jane, have entered the leadership of the Lauder Group.
Irene is Estée Lauder's style and image director and founded her own luxury brand, AERIN Beauty, in 2012.
Jane also serves as executive vice president and chief data officer at the company, both of whom are worth around $3-4 billion.
Now that the Lauder family has a solid position in the group, its wealth is also growing indefinitely, and the family assets have reached 40 billion US dollars, and it should be no problem to pass on 2-3 generations...
Absolutely private – the Mars family
Mars Family-owned Mars Corporation is currently the world's largest confectionery and chocolate manufacturer.
Green Arrow, Yida, Dove, Snickers, M&M's and other familiar brands all belong to Mars.
According to 2020 statistics, the total wealth of all members of the family is about 126 billion US dollars, and the business and wealth have been passed down to the fourth generation, among many wealthy families, it is regarded as the longest wealth inheritance year...
The founding generation was Frank Mars, who founded the "Mar-O-Bar" confectionery factory at the beginning of the last century, but his business skills were mediocre and he could only barely make ends meet.
The factory barely survived until 1926, when Frank's son Forrester joined the business and developed the "Galaxy Chocolate Bar", and Mars gradually developed into the second largest candy manufacturer in the United States.
After the death of the first generation, Forrester began to drastically reform the company's system, taking full power until his retirement in 1973, when his children Jacqueline, John and Little Forrester, the third generation, inherited the shares of the company, and they also shifted from the second generation to focus on production and to acquire other companies to expand...
Three generations of Jacqueline
After Jacqueline's son, fourth-generation Stephen Badger, led the acquisition of Wrigley Chewing Gum, Mars finally became the world's top in the industry.
Now Jacqueline is 83 years old, Mars company has been completely passed to Stephen Badger, but so far, Mars has not been listed, the family has always chosen to let the company maintain the positioning of a private family business, any major decision, or only need to discuss clearly within the family, quickly raise hands to vote can be efficiently put on the agenda...
Perhaps this is one of the important reasons why Mars' vast family property and corporate control can be passed on smoothly for four generations.
It all depends on the second generation - the Hearst family
The generation that started the Hearst family was American newspaper tycoon William Hirst.
Before taking over the San Francisco Chronicle from his father, he had been a rich second-generation, indulged in Harvard, and although he showed excellent business talent in school, he was expelled from school for his behavior that crossed the line...
That is, after being expelled from Harvard, in 1887, he took over the San Francisco Chronicle from his father, almost from scratch, step by step to build the world's largest media empire, becoming the publisher of the American Daily News in New York...
At the peak of his career, one in every four Americans bought a newspaper published by William Enterprises...
And in the matter of preserving the family wealth, it is all due to William's personal wisdom.
Before his death in the 50s, he saw that his five sons were overwhelmed and had little to do to carry on his career.
In order not to let his hard work go out of business, he hired professional managers, left only 5 votes for the family members in the 13 votes on the board, and wrote in the will that the dividend would flow into the "Hearst Family Trust", and his descendants lived on the trust, and whoever challenged the will would lose the right to inherit.
So far, the group has earned more than 10 billion US dollars a year, the assets of the Hearst family have accumulated 21 billion US dollars, and the trust will continue to operate until the death of his last grandchild, and it is estimated that it will not be dissolved in 2035...
Hearst International Group headquarters
It turns out that wealth is still in the hands of a small number of people, and 50 wealthy families can control trillions of dollars of wealth...
The wealth value of most wealthy families has not been affected by the passage of time and the change of dynasty, because they have united the Buddhist lineage, ancestral wisdom or personal business talent, they still maintain the value of the rich, and may be richer...