Top 5 Wealthiest Families in the World

Creatures of flesh and blood lurk behind every corporation in the world. This is somewhat comforting but at the same time sad that not all of us will ever join the billionaire’s club. Perhaps we could find solace with successful family businesses, which sort of reeks a universal appeal.

We all have families and although we may not boast of incredible wealth, at least we can relate to the heritage, the tradition, authenticity, lineage among other values a family business offers.

The world has many wealthy families. While some inherited from their forefathers, others have made it through business ventures, which is the focus of this post. We like keeping tabs on the rich, both to satisfy our curiosity and perhaps emulate their success story.

That said, here are the world’s top 5 richest families that triumphed through business success.

1.    The Waltons

The Walton family is the richest family in the world with an estimated wealth of between 151.5 and 174.5 billion US dollars. They own Wal-Mart, a retail behemoth that is now the world’s largest company by revenues worth 500 billion dollars and a whopping 2.3 million employees!

Jim and Alice Walton themselves at the top of the chain are worth approximately 46.4 billion dollars each and ranked at position 14 and 16, respectively, on Forbes annual list of billionaires. Their company operates close to 12,000 stores worldwide and are praised for their low-priced products.

2.    The Koch Brothers (Koch Industries)

The Koch brothers; Charles and David Koch are currently the force behind many initiatives including the funding of political candidates, policy positions lobby, university professorships, and libertarian think tanks among others with a focus on enhancing particular conservative agenda. They are worth 120 billion US dollars, all thanks to their father’s oil business. Each of them is worth 60 billion dollars and they hold the 8^th position among the world’s billionaires.

3.    The Mars

The Mars family is worth between 70.9 and 89.7 billion dollars. The family business is known as a multigenerational one, which is ubiquitous, cheap, and popular. It is the world’s largest candy company that diversified in 2017 to own a 7.7 billion pet care company, VAC.

Frank Mars founded the company and left it to two his children, Jacqueline and John Mars, who are 23.6 billion dollars each. The Mars company is nowadays run by the fourth generation of the Mars family members

4.    Bernard Arnault & Family

With an estimated wealth of 72.2 billion dollars, Bernard Arnault & Family owns the LVMH, a French conglomerate of 70 luxury brands. Some of its namesake companies include Louis Vuitton, Moët, and Hennessey. Moreover, Hennessey liquor, TAG Heuer watches, the cosmetics shop Sephora, Dom Perignon champagne, the fashion labels Christian Dior and Fendi, and Hublot, are some of its portfolios. Bernard Arnault founded LVMH and acquired French textiles company Boussac decades ago. Currently, Arnault has a net worth of 30.5 billion dollars thanks to the LVMH record results and a buyout of Christian Dior.

5.    Carlos Slim Helu & Family

The family is worth 67 billion dollars with Carlos being the richest man in Mexico. The family controls America Movil, the mobile telecom giant in Latin America, alongside Telmex, the sole phone company of Mexico. Carlos amassed his wealth in 1982 when the Mexican economy tanked and he took advantage of the cheap companies then. He recently became a top investor in the construction of a controversial 13 billion-dollar new airport project in Mexico City.

This list might have a few quibbles. For instance, the world’s richest billionaires, Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, among others are not in the list although they have families.

Regardless of the limitations, we can all agree that learning about wealthy families has its advantages. They give us a reflection of who we could be and even though we may not be billionaires or heirs, we collectively want a decent lifestyle with affordable wants and needs. This is why when a few of us seem to have made it in life, we recognize their aesthetics as symbols of quality, if not the desirable life we all want to live.