Forbes.Billion-Dollar Dynasties: These Are The Richest Families In America

Forbes’ definitive ranking of the nation’s 50 wealthiest clans includes the heirs to some of the country’s best known brands: Campbell’s Soup, Jack Daniel’s, Walmart and Chick-fil-A.

Above, Sam and Helen Walton in a 1962 photo with their four children: Alice, John, Rob and Jim.

^It’s been a good half-decade for the wealthiest families in America. Thanks to soaring markets, the 50 clans on Forbes’ latest ranking of America’s Richest Families are worth a collective $1.2 trillion—up about 30% from $916 billion in 2015. These families are all worth at least $7.3 billion, up from $6 billion five years ago, the last time we ranked that many.

The Waltons remain the richest. The descendants of Walmart founders Sam Walton (d. 1992) and Bud Walton (d. 1995) own about half of the retailing giant’s stock, which generates more than $700 million in dividend income for the family every year. They’re followed by the Kochs, who own 84% of Koch Industries, which does $115 billion in revenues from businesses that include pipelines, chemicals, Dixie cups and Stainmaster carpet. One of the few families whose fortunes fell since 2015: the Sacklers, owners of opioid producer Purdue Pharma—which has been sued by attorneys general in nearly every U.S. state for the company’s alleged role in the opioid crisis. (See story here.)

Other notable products produced by these ultra-rich families include: M&Ms and Pedigree pet food (Mars family) Jack Daniel’s whiskey (Brown family), Campbell’s Soup (Dorrance family) and Gap clothing (Fisher family). Both the Simplot and Reyes families are key food suppliers to McDonald’s. While the Du Ponts and Rockefellers are on the list, some of America’s most storied dynasties—like Astor, Vanderbilt and Ford—don’t make the cut, their fortunes having largely dissipated over multiple generations.  

Those who have made their fortunes in the modern era, amassing enormous wealth in five decades or less include the Hughes family, who control self-storage giant Public Storage; the Cathys, owners of Chick-fil-A; and the Chaos, of Westlake Chemical, one of the country’s largest producers of low-density polyethylene, used for milk cartons and other food packaging. The only Asian-Americans and nonwhites to make these ranks—just one sign of a racial wealth gap in the country—the Chaos trace their fortune in the U.S. to the 1980s, when T.T. Chao (d. 2008) moved his family from Taiwan to this country and founded Westlake Chemical. 

Of course, just because these families are super rich doesn’t mean they’re happy. Six of the clans on this year’s list have gone through very bitter—and very public—family feuds, including legal battles over trust funds, sham adoptions and even murder accusations.

Here is Forbes’ definitive ranking of the 50 richest families in America. Up/down is compared to their net worth in 2015. (See below the list for the full methodology.)

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1. Walton Family

• Worth: $247 billion

• Change: UP

• Origin of Wealth: Walmart

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2. Koch Family

• Worth: $100 billion

• Change: UP

• Origin of Wealth: diversified

3. Mars Family

• Worth: $94 billion

• Change: UP

• Origin of Wealth: candy

4. Cargill-MacMillan Family

• Worth: $47 billion

• Change: UP

• Origin of Wealth: Cargill Inc.

5. Lauder Family

• Worth: $40 billion

• Change: UP

• Origin of Wealth: Estee Lauder

6. S.C. Johnson Family

• Worth: $37 billion

• Change: UP

• Origin of Wealth: cleaning products

7. (Edward) Johnson Family

• Worth: $36 billion

• Change: UP

• Origin of Wealth: money management

8. Cox Family

• Worth: $34.5 billion

• Change: EVEN

• Origin of Wealth: media

9. Pritzker Family

• Worth: $32.5 billion

• Change: UP

• Origin of Wealth: Hotels, investments

10. Newhouse Family

• Worth: $30 billion

• Change: UP

• Origin of Wealth: magazines, newspapers

11. Duncan Family

• Worth: $22 billion

• Change: DOWN

• Origin of Wealth: pipelines

12. Hearst Family

• Worth: $21 billion

• Change: DOWN

• Origin of Wealth: Hearst Corp.

13. Brown Family

• Worth: $20.4 billion

• Change: UP

• Origin of Wealth: liquor

14. Marshall Family

• Worth: $18.5 billion

• Change: UP

• Origin of Wealth: diversified

15. Butt Family

• Worth: $17.8 billion

• Change: UP

• Origin of Wealth: supermarkets

16. Busch Family

• Worth: $17.6 billion

• Change: UP

• Origin of Wealth: Anheuser -Busch

17. Du Pont Family

• Worth: $16 billion

• Change: UP

• Origin of Wealth: DuPont

18. Hunt Family

• Worth: $15.5 billion

• Change: UP

• Origin of Wealth: oil

19. Dorrance Family

• Worth: $15 billion

• Change: UP

• Origin of Wealth: Campbell Soup Co.

20. Ziff Family

• Worth: $15 billion

• Change: EVEN

• Origin of Wealth: publishing

21. Cathy Family

• Worth: $14.2 billion

• Change: UP

• Origin of Wealth: Chick-fil-A

22. Stryker Family

• Worth: $14 billion

• Change: UP

• Origin of Wealth: medical equipment

23. Goldman Family

• Worth: $13.2 billion

• Change: NEW

• Origin of Wealth: real estate

24. Rollins Family

• Worth: $13.1 billion

• Change: UP

• Origin of Wealth: Orkin pest control

25. Gallo Family

• Worth: $12.4 billion

• Change: UP

• Origin of Wealth: wine, liquor

26. Reyes Family

• Worth: $12 billion

• Change: UP

• Origin of Wealth: food & beer distribution

27. Kohler Family

• Worth: $11.7 billion

• Change: NEW

• Origin of Wealth: plumbing products, sinks

28. Mellon Family

• Worth: $11.5 billion

• Change: EVEN

• Origin of Wealth: banking

29. Smith Family

• Worth: $11.3 billion

• Change: UP

• Origin of Wealth: tools, banking

30. Bass Family

• Worth: $10.8 billion

• Change: UP

• Origin of Wealth: oil, investments

30. Sackler Family

• Worth: $10.8 billion

• Change: DOWN

• Origin of Wealth: pain medicines

32. Johnson Family

• Worth: $10.7 billion

• Change: UP

• Origin of Wealth: Johnson & Johnson

33. Marriott Family

• Worth: $10.4 billion

• Change: UP

• Origin of Wealth: hotels

34. Crown Family

• Worth: $10.2 billion

• Change: UP

• Origin of Wealth: investments

34. Hughes Family

Worth: $10.2 billion

• Change: UP

• Origin of Wealth: Public Storage Inc.

36. Pigott Family

• Worth: $10.1 billion

• Change: UP

• Origin of Wealth: trucks

37. Shoen Family

• Worth: $9 billion

• Change: UP

• Origin of Wealth: U-Haul

38. (Don & Doris) Fisher Family

• Worth: $8.9 billion

• Change: DOWN

• Origin of Wealth: The Gap

39. Jenkins Family

• Worth: $8.8 billion

• Change: UP

• Origin of Wealth: Publix Super Markets

40. Chao Family

• Worth: $8.6 billion

• Change: UP

• Origin of Wealth: chemicals

40. (Charles & Rupert) Johnson Family

• Worth: $8.6 billion

• Change: DOWN

• Origin of Wealth: mutual funds

40. Phipps Family

• Worth: $8.6 billion

• Change: UP

• Origin of Wealth: Carnegie Steel, Bessemer Trust

43. Rockefeller Family

• Worth: $8.4 billion

• Change: DOWN

• Origin of Wealth: oil

43. E.W. Scripps Family

• Worth: $8.4 billion

• Change: UP

• Origin of Wealth: newspapers

45. Bechtel Family

• Worth: $8.3 billion

• Change: UP

• Origin of Wealth: construction, engineering

46. Gore Family

• Worth: $8.2 billion

• Change: UP

• Origin of Wealth: Gore-Tex

47. Durst Family

• Worth: $8.1 billion

• Change: UP

• Origin of Wealth: real estate

48. Taylor Family

• Worth: $7.8 billion

• Change: NEW

• Origin of Wealth: Enterprise Rent-A-Car

49. Simplot Family

• Worth: $7.7 billion

• Change: UP

• Origin of Wealth: agribusiness

50. Barbey Family

• Worth: $7.3 billion

• Change: UP

• Origin of Wealth: textiles, apparel

METHODOLOGY

Unlike our flagship Forbes 400 list of America’s richest people and our World’s Billionaires ranks, which focus on individual or nuclear-family wealth, America’s Richest Families includes multigenerational families of all sizes, ranging from just 2 brothers to the 4,000 members of the Du Pont clan. (Note: We left out self-made entrepreneurs who founded their companies and already appear with their nuclear family on our Billionaires list. That includes Rupert Murdoch and J. Joe Ricketts. Also absent are married couples like Tom and Judy Love.)

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