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!
