Billion-Dollar Clans: America's 25 Richest Families 2016

Forbes

Great fortunes are notoriously easy to lose. Not so for the nation’s 25 richest clans, who’ve bucked the odds and held onto their wealth over generations, in some cases since the late 1800s. Collectively they are worth $722 billion this year, $11 billion less than the top 25 were a year ago.

These scions and builders of America’s great businesses own brands like Campbell Soup CPB +1.71%, Windex, Hyatt Hotels H -1.89%, OxyContin and more. Among this elite group are familiar families like the Waltons and Rockefellers and lesser-knowns like the Sacklers. One newcomer is likely the least known of all: the Goldman family, whose late patriarch Sol quietly purchased hundreds of properties across New York City. Until now, the family has succeeded in keeping the size and reach of their sprawling real estate empire largely under wraps.

The Waltons are the wealthiest family in the U.S., and have been for the three years that FORBES has tracked the wealth of America’s Richest Families. Seven heirs of Wal-Mart founders Sam Walton and James “Bud” Walton own about half of the world’s largest retailer, a fortune that Forbes estimates at $130 billion. That’s down from $149 billion a year ago, primarily due to new information about gifts of stock to charity made by John Walton, Sam’s late son.

Number two on the list: the Koch family. Charles and David Koch, two of four brothers, run and own the majority of conglomerateKoch Industries , the second largest private company in the U.S. The four Koch siblings share a fortune that FORBES pegs at $82 billion. The Mars clan, owners of candy giant Mars Inc., maker of M&Ms and Snickers rank third. The three Mars siblings who share the fortune are not involved in management, though John Mars sits on the board, which is chaired by Victoria Mars, daughter of Franklin Mars Jr. and a fourth generation family member. In an unexpected move for a candy company, in March Mars Inc. announced that it is working to limit added sugar in its products and and supports U.S. government efforts to include added sugars in food labeling.

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America's Richest Families 2016
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Twelve of the 25 fortunes fell compared to a year ago, while 10 increased. Two were unchanged and one is new. To make the top 25 list, the net worth cutoff was $10.7 billion.

See the full list of 25 and the methodology below here:

Rank	Name	Net Worth	Origin of Wealth
1	Walton family	$130 billion	Wal-Mart
2	Koch family	$82 billion	diversified
3	Mars family	$78 billion	candy
4	Cargill-MacMillan family	$49 billion	Cargill Inc.
5	Cox family	$41 billion	media
6	S.C. Johnson family	$30 billion	cleaning products
7	Pritzker family	$29 billion	hotels, investments
8	(Edward) Johnson family	$28.5 billion	money management
9	Hearst family	$28 billion	Hearst Corp.
10	Duncan family	$21.5 billion	pipelines
11	Newhouse family	$18.5 billion	magazines, cable TV
12	Lauder family	$17.9 billion	Estee Lauder
13	Dorrance family	$17.1 billion	Campbell Soup Co.
14	Ziff family	$14.4 billion	publishing
15	Du Pont family	$14.3 billion	DuPont (chemicals)
16	Hunt family	$13.7 billion	oil
16	Goldman family	$13.7 billion	real estate
18	Busch family	$13.4 billion	Anheuser-Busch
19	Sackler family	$13 billion	pain medicines
20	Brown family	$12.3 billion	liquor
21	Marshall family	$12 billion	diversified
22	Mellon family	$11.5 billion	banking
23	Butt family	$11 billion	supermarkets
23	Rockefeller family	$11 billion	oil
25	Gallo family	$10.7 billion	wine, liquor

METHODOLOGY

Unlike our flagship Forbes 400 list of America’s richest and our World Billionaires ranks, which focus on individual or nuclear-family wealth, this year’s list of America’s 25 Richest Families includes families of all sizes, ranging from just 3 relatives to the estimated 3,500 members of the Du Pont clan. All 25 fortunes were started by a previous generation. We left out self-made entrepreneurs who founded their companies and already appear with their nuclear family on our Forbes 400 list.

To value the fortunes we added up family members’ assets, including stakes in public and private companies, real estate, art and cash, and took into account estimates of debt. For those with publicly traded holdings, we used stock prices from the close of trading on June 17, 2016. We excluded any assets irrevocably pledged to charitable foundations. We attempted to vet these numbers with all the families or their representatives. Some cooperated; others didn’t. Think we missed a clan? E-mail readers@forbes.com, and we’ll investigate.

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