A report by the American “CNN” network revealed that the heir to the British throne, Prince William, the eldest son of the new king, Charles III, has become the richest man in the family after the death of Queen Elizabeth II.
The network said the future king would inherit the Duchy of Cornwall’s private estate from his father, which contains a sprawling area of land and property covering nearly 140,000 acres, mostly in southwest England.
She added that the property, which was established in 1337 by King Edward III, is worth about one billion pounds ($1.2 billion), according to calculations from the last financial year.
Proceeds from the estate are used to “finance the public, private and charitable activities” of the Duke of Cornwall, a title now held by Prince William, succeeding his father, who became King of Britain.
Royal wills are not made public, meaning that what happens to much of Queen Elizabeth’s personal fortune after her death last week will remain a family secret.
Last year, Forbes estimated the late queen’s personal fortune at $500 million, consisting of her jewelry, art collections, investments, two homes, Balmoral Castle in Scotland and Sandringham House in Norfolk, both of which the Queen inherited from her father, King George VI.
But the bulk of the royal family’s fortune, totaling at least 18 billion pounds ($21 billion) in land, property and investments, now passes along a centuries-old path to the new monarch, King Charles, and his heir Prince William.
The largest slice of the family’s 16.5 billion pounds ($19 billion) fortune is now owned by Charles as the reigning monarch. But under an arrangement dating back to 1760, the king hands over all the profits of the estate to the government, in exchange for a tranche called the Sovereign’s Grant.
The estate includes swathes of real estate in central London and the seabed around England, Wales and Northern Ireland. It has the status of a corporation and is run by a chief executive and commissioners, appointed by the king on the recommendation of the prime minister.
In the last financial year, the estate generated a net profit of about 313 million pounds ($361 million). The British Treasury paid the Queen a sovereign grant of 86 million pounds ($100 million).
Most of this money is spent on maintaining the royal family’s property and paying the salaries of its employees.
But despite the enormous sums, the king and his heir are restricted in the amount of personal use of their wealth.
The king can spend the sovereign grant only on royal duties, and neither he nor his heir is allowed to profit from the sale of assets in their duchies.