The U.K.’s Queen Elizabeth II is ringing in her 90th birthday on Thursday, and the Her Majesty has every reason to celebrate.
Not only has Britain’s longest-reigning monarch already beaten the average U.K. life expectancy by nine years, she’s also among the top 25 richest people in the world. Just accounting for the tangible assets of the U.K. monarchy, the Queen sits on about £20 billion, or $28.8 billion, according to strategy consultancy Brand Finance.
That is enough to put her 25th among the world’s richest on the Bloomberg Billionaire list, and ahead of high rollers such as investment guru George Soros, Microsoft MSFT, +0.39% CEO Steve Ballmer and Michael Dell.
However, the billions in assets, including swathes of U.K. property owned by the Crown Estate, the Crown Jewels and the Royal Art Collection, aren’t the Queen’s private property and not for her to sell or manage. Instead, they are held in trusts for future generations and help pay the royal family’s expenses, such as staffing, travel and upkeep for the palaces.
For example, in the financial year of 2014/2015, the Crown Estate made a profit of about $410 million, of which the Queen received around 15%, or $55 million, as a sovereign grant. The remaining Crown Estate profit is every year being funneled into the Treasury.
This means the Queen, personally, is no billionaire. In fact, she was last year kicked out of the list of the top 300 wealthiest people in the U.K., according to the Sunday Times Rich List. Her fortune increased by $14.4 million, but there was a dramatic rise in other millionaires and billionaires. The paper estimated that the highness’s net worth stood at $489 million, putting her at number 302.
While the details of the Queen’s personal finances are closely guarded, Bloomberg has taken a crack at laying out the particulars. The breakdown of her capital showed the majority of the monarch’s affluence comes from the Queen Mother’s legacy, property ownership a whopping $75 million stamp collection, investment and property holdings and a $10 million Royal Stud.
Via Marketwatch
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