One more Asian billionaire every other day: UBS study finds

According to a study by UBS and PwC a billionaire in Asia is created every other day. Total billionaires in Asia are 637 as compared to 563 in U.S. The study further says that a 17% surge in billionaire wealth is supported by new billionaires born in Asia as well as an uptick in growth in materials, industrial, financial and technology sectors.

The total billionaire wealth has increased from USD 5.1 trillion to USD 6 trillion in 2016.

Billionaires from United States owns 2.8 trillion USD, an increase of .4 trillion dollars. Combined wealth of Asian billionaires grew from 1.5 trillion dollars to 2 trillion USD. Combined total wealth of 342 European billionaires was 1.3 trillion USD.

The study also mentioned that if the current trend continued, it is likely that Asian billionaires would overtake U.S. billionaires in wealth in four years. The surge in billionaires’ population in Asia can be attributed to growth in China and India, which have 318 and 100 billionaires respectively.

The report further points to increasing role of networks in raising capital outside financial markets which is no surprise, given the increasing role of Asian businesses which feels comfortable going to family rather than capital markets for funds.

Europe, the report says, in 2016 was the story of multigenerational wealth preservation. The number of billionaires in Europe was 342, by the end of the year.

The business controlled by these billionaire employees 27.7 million people, which is roughly the size of U.K. workforce.

Top 10 richest presidents of U.S.A.

With the election of Donald Trump as next U.S. president, America is going to see the richest President all time.  Earlier the richest one was founding President George Washington with worth of 580 million U.S. dollars. Below is the list of richest presidents along with their wealth, in 2016 dollars. The figures represent peak wealth.

1.       John. F. Kennedy ( more than 1 billion $)

He along with his family owned more than 1 billion us dollars. His family fortune was created by his father John Kennedy, who made money from commodity trading and real estate investing.

2.       George Washington (580 million dollars)

He was an industrialist and entrepreneur. He sat up his own distillatory for making alcohol. Moreover he owned more than 8000 acres of land. President Washington estimated worth in today’s dollars is 580 million $.

3.       Thomas Jefferson (234 million dollars)

He was third president of United States. His net worth was 234 million $.  He inherited vast fortune but ended up in debts, in later part of his life.

4.       Theodore Roosevelt(138 million dollars)

He owned 138 million dollars. He was born to prominent and wealthy New York family and became 26^th U.S. president.

5.       Andrew Jackson(131 million dollars)

Andrew Jackson was 7^th president of United States. He owned 640-acare plantation called hermitage situated near Nashville. He was among first three investors who founded Memphis.

6.       James Madison (112 million dollars) 

112 million dollars president Madison after inheriting some land from his father, he eventually owned 5000-acres.  He became the largest land owner of Orange County, Virginia.

7.       Lyndon b. Johnson. (108 million dollars)

After inheriting small piece of land, in Texas, he eventually built it up into expensive 1500-acre ranch. His wife also owned radio and TV station in Austin, Texas.

8.       Herbert Hoover (82 million dollars)

A mining engineer by profession amassed huge stakes in different mining companies.

9.       Bill Clinton ( 75 million dollars)

He unlike other presidents, Clinton didn’t inherited family fortune. He made his fortune during his tenure as Arkansas Governor and later as President. He also received 15 million$ advance for his autobiography in 2005. President Clinton is one of the highest paid keynote speakers.

10.   Franklin D. Roosevelt (66 million dollars)

32^nd President of United States owned 66 million dollars. Like other wealthy U.S. presidents much of his fortune was inherited.

5 Most powerful economic nations of history

For the most part of the history, the most powerful economic powers were simply the countries that housed the most people and controlled the most land. Up until 300 years ago, economies across the world were mainly agricultural. Economic historian Ian Morris says that for the most part of the human history, civilization’s economic strength depended largely on when it experienced an agricultural revolution.   Until the industrial revolution upended everything, it would take a nation thousands of years to turn itself into an economic powerhouse.

Here is the list of 5 historically dominant economic civilizations, in chronological order.

Roman Empire

Rome, the distant descendant of first agricultural revolution, became dominant global empire in matters of centuries. It at its peak controlled 25 to 30% global production. As trade is vital for economic growth, the Romans were better at it during their height than anybody else. Historical evidence also suggest that they had very well developed financial system that made extensive use of credit and bank notes, hence enabling traders to forgo hauling precious metals across distances.

China under Song Dynasty

China under song dynasty controlled 25 to 30% of global output. Although agriculture reached china later than it did in modern day Middle East but Chinese made good use of the benefits of agricultural society.

Mughal Empire

One of the most magnificent and economically most powerful civilization, the world has ever seen is India’s Mughal empire. The English word Mogul is derived from the word ‘Mughal’. Even today the signs of their splendor can be seen in form Taj Mahal Agra, Badshahi Mosque,etc. According to late economic historian Angus Maddison, the per capita income of the mughal era india was likely about the same as in England or Britain at the time, but India’s aristocracy’s life style surpassed that of European elites.  Mughal era at it its peak produced one-fourth of global output.  

British civilization

Its aptitude of profiteering from its colonies made it the first global economic powerhouse which dominated the world without strictly controlling equally large percentage of population. Another advantage, Britain enjoyed came from huge technological boost of the industrial revolution. It, at its height, produced 21% of total global output out of which 6% came from its colonies.

American civilization

United States, for about past 140 years, is the largest economy, but its relative power is in decline. It is expected that China’s economy would overtake the United States, by 2018.

After the World War II, there was a brief period when United States, owing to destruction of other industrial economies, produced half of world total economic output.

The enormous wealth of presidential contestants

Hillary Clinton and her husband have earned 30 million dollars during previous 16 months, according to ‘financial disclosure forms’ filed with federal elections officials on Friday.

Bill Clinton, husband of Hillary Clinton

In the 2016 presidential elections many of the possible contenders are much wealthier than average American citizen.

Jeb bush, for example, is a member of wealthy families that own Oceanside compound in Kennebunkport, Maine. Democrat’s possible contender Hillary Clinton, wife of former President Bill Clinton, has earned 200,000 dollars as speaking fees over the past year. The one hour speech can earn Mrs. Clinton what average American make in four years.

 In addition to speaking fees she was known to have received a $14 million advance for the book she released last year.

Other contestants include Ted Cruz having worth of $3.2 million, Rand Paul having $1.3 million.

Businesswoman Carly Fiorina is one of the wealthiest potential White house contenders. She is worth an estimated $ 71 million.

But these contestants are nowhere near to the former contestant, private equity mogul, Mitt Romney. At the time of contest he had had somewhere between $190 million to $250 million.

The tendency of power to concentrate in the hands of rich and those having strong family connection is seen in the World’s sole super power.

Past presidents did include millionaires. The richest president till now is J. F. Kennedy who is estimated to be a billionaire in 2010 dollar terms. Other rich presidents in 2010 dollars terms were George Washington 525 million dollars, Thomas Jefferson 212 million dollars, Theodore Roosevelt 125 million dollars, Andrew Jackson 119 million dollars, James Madison 101 million dollars, Lyndon Johnson 98 million dollars, Herbert Hoover 75 million dollars, Franklin Roosevelt 60 million dollars, bill Clinton 55 million dollars, George H W Bush 23 million dollars, George W Bush 20 million dollars.

Although J. F. Kennedy is considered to be billionaire but conservative estimates suggest much less figure hence George Washington can be considered to be the richest president of all. President Washington owned nearly 60,000 acres and more than 300 slaves.

George Washington was in the business of flour milling, fishing, horse breeding, spinning, weaving and (in the 1790s) whiskey production.

Wealth of congressman, senators and presidential contestants has brought severe criticism from general public. The criticism is not entirely unwarranted.

 The general trend of American society from meritocracy to aristocracy has been noticed.  

The nation of ship-owners

No nation has ever been so much successful in maritime industry as this nation. Today 95 % goods are carried through ships and shipping magnate from this nation owns 23% of the world bulk carriers.

95% of merchant goods are carried through ships

The fleet belonging to wealthy of this nation is valued at 105 billion dollars, according to vesselvalues.com. The combined value of global fleet of vessels is 680.4 billion dollars. Hence the maritime nation owns 15.43% worth of global fleet. 

The maritime nation is no other than Greek, who have been fighting severe debt crisis since 2009. Severe Government debt crisis has caused many Greeks to lose their jobs. The unemployment rate is as high as 25.40% for February 2015. But the families involved in shipping business are spending as if there were no crisis.

Ship owning business is part of Greek culture. Owing to mountainous landscape, limited availability of farming land and extended coastline, Greek, at an earlier stage, turned to maritime business. Furthermore Greece, being situated at crossroads of ancient sea lanes in eastern Mediterranean and proximity of other advanced civilizations helped Greek succeed in this business. New evidence suggest that since ancient times wine, oil and honey were traded, as well as fruit, fish, meat and resin by Greek ship owners.

The majority of these maritime companies are run by families with a long tradition in shipping.

There are 800-900 families involved in this business, leading among them are Onassis, Niarchos, Evgenidis, Latsis, Lemos, Laskaridis, Pateras, and Tsakos families.

Today constitutional protection related to taxation provided to ship owners and geographical factors led the ship-owning families to live like landed aristocrats of medieval times. Like aristocratic families ship-owning families have their own family culture, and a thrust to protect their status in Greek society. These families often inter-marry thus multiplying power and wealth of these families.

These 800-900 families, involved in Ship-owning business, own slightly more than 4000 vessels.  Hence per family average ownership comes to 4.7 vessels. Families in Greece along with Spain and Italy are more cohesive than many other European counterparts. Hence the help and support from family is also an important factor in the success of Greece's maritime business.

These rich families, although are accused of not doing enough for Greece; especially during the time of crisis, are also involved in philanthropy. Foundations bearing the names of the rich maritime families like Onassis foundation are highly involved in charity.

Qatar spending spree

Qatar is a small gulf country with vast oil and gas reserves. The export of oil and gas has led Qatar to enjoy highest per capita income in the world. 

The government is in the hands of Al Thani family who are governing Qatar as hereditary state since its founding.  The Government of Emir Shaikh Tamim Bin Hammad Al Thani provides subsidies to its people on almost everything from health care to education.

 Owing to huge subsidies, Qatar has not seen Arab spring. Rather it funded the rise against Arab monarchs some of whom were governing for many decades. The funding of Arab spring has now backfired and it has to put an end on its spending for its expansionary plans.

Still Qatar has other options to spend her shale money. The preparations for FIFA football worldcup in 2022, is an outlet for the government to bankroll the projects in order to successfully hold the event. The total expenditure on these projects is planned to be in excess of 200 billion dollars. Regional business intelligence specialist MEED has predicted that Qatar will see $30 billion worth of new infrastructure projects through 2015 alone.

Unlike other Gulf countries like Saudi Arabia and UAE, Qatar has not seen slow down in mega projects due to fall in oil prices. This has been said by Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank in a report showing the mixed impact of cheap oil on the Gulf.

Family offices: managing the fortune of wealthy dynasties

Family office is a private investment arm of wealth families. When family office manages the wealth of single family it is known as Single Family Office (SFO) and when it manages the wealth of many families it is called multi-family office. Family office manages every task related to the wealth of family from accounting to succession planning, investing and philanthropy management

Establishing SFO is very expensive. In order to justify cost your family need to have at least half a billion dollars. The wealthier a family is the more cost effective it is to have a SFO.

If a family doesn’t own enormous wealth to justify having SFO than a family can have Multi-Family Office (MFO). MFOs can provide services to those families whose net worth is in the range of 100 million dollars to 500 million dollars. MFOs are charged with the same responsibilities, as taken over by SFO. The difference lies in the number of families, served by the family office. SFO serve single family while multifamily offices serve a number of families.

The rise in popularity of family offices against the alternatives can be attributed to a number of reasons. The triggering event of this rise was global meltdown in 2008. Wealthy families, heirs of wealthy dynasties, watched, helplessly, their fortunes being destroyed by the meltdown. The families felt cheated by asset managers, wealth managers and others large institutions for losing their fortune without going themselves into bankruptcy. Banks, for instance, were saved from bankruptcy during the crisis. Families who were invested in large funds and other big institutions watched their entire fortune being wiped away without being able to take out their investments owing to, for example, gates in case of hedge funds.

Feeling cheated, these wealthy families now wanted to take control of their wealth. In order to take control of their wealth they created another type of financial institution, Family office. The impact of rise of these institutions was felt by many in the industry of asset management. As their competitors, family offices invest in much different way than did the alternative institutions. Take for instance the time horizon considered in case of investments. As investors, they have far longer time frames than private equity houses or venture capitalists. Often the long range investment means that there is no exit strategy planned at the time of investment by FO.

Benefits from family office accrue to both parties, one owning the family office and the other receiving investment form these family investment’s arms.

The benefits accrued to wealthy families far outnumber than the benefits to the investees. These include control of wealth, flexibility in investing, and privacy.

The major benefit is control over your family wealth, has been discussed in preceding paragraphs.

The family office helps not only to take complete control of your wealth management but also provides flexibility in investing. The choice of investments can vary widely from real estate investments to investment in start-ups. The increased tolerance for risk taking, when the returns justify, is the edge over other institutions. Now families can invest in those areas where there is more return.

Another benefit to the families is privacy. The privacy afforded by Family Offices can’t be provided by conventional wealth management institutions.

The benefits to the investee firms and companies include the long time period of investment, and the increased risk tolerance.

Owning to long time period investments by family offices, they are given preference by nascent companies over private equity houses.

"With a family office you don't have a time horizon. We like the long-term focus. It's great to have an investor who doesn't view going public as an exit opportunity, but rather a chance to buy more stock," said Pere Valles, Chief Executive of Spanish electoraltechnology company Scytl.

The increased risk tolerance means much more to start ups than to other types of investee entities. The increased trend in investing in technology related companies has added another dimension to the investment.  Generally technology companies don’t have tangible assets, to use them as pledge for arranging loan from bank. Many Family offices are betting on technology, stepping in where venture capital and banks are reluctant to tread.

Another benefit is that those who successfully receive old wealth, for their start-up, need not spend their time searching for new investors hence finding more time to focus on their business.

Related links
Single family office
Multi-family office
Blommber's family office report
Hedge funds close the gate

Growing importance of Sovereign Wealth Funds (SWFs)

Surplus wealth of many oil rich countries is managed by SWFs

Sovereign Wealth Fund (SWF) is state owned pool of money invested in various financial assets.  This investment fund is established by current or capital balance of payment surplus and budget surplus. Sovereign wealth funds can be distinguished from foreign exchange reserves. Sovereign wealth funds aim to maximize long-term returns while foreign exchange reserves promote short term currency stability. Recent years has seen a rapid rise in number of sovereign wealth funds. Rise in oil and gas prices led this rapid surge.

The primary purpose of SWF is to diversify economy and generate wealth for future generations.

Sovereign wealth funds invest in various financial assets

SWFs can be categorized in two types depending upon their financing.

1.       Commodity

2.       Non commodity

Commodity funds are those financed by commodity exports, the most common of which is oil export. This type of fund is usually set up by those economies that are dependent on single commodity exports. When the price of commodity in international market rises the exporting nation will see greater surplus. Conversely when export driven economy sees the fall in commodity price it faces a huge current account deficit. Therefore a sovereign wealth fund is established to stabilize the economy by diversifying the country’s wealth in other industries.

Non commodity funds are those financed through surplus foreign currency reserves.

Political motives

Sovereign wealth fund may have political/strategic motives like gaining control of strategic industries for political reasons. Many politicians criticized the investment by SWFs as security risk. On January 15th, 2008 Hillary Clinton said: “We need to have a lot more control over what they [sovereign-wealth funds] do and how they do it.” The huge size of these funds can make an impact on global economy. Some experts claim that all these funds combined to hold 5 trillion dollars in assets in 2012.

Extension of state

These funds can be thought of as extension of state therefore they are not necessarily driven by profit and loss. Hence these funds can act as a tool of Government policy.

As Arab countries faced the problem of food inflation their Governments started to negotiate for land lease through these sovereign wealth funds. This land will be used to produce food which then will be exported back to the investing country. This investment is in fact resource seeking instead of market seeking. Land grabbing by these institutional investors in Africa and Asia has occurred often to the prejudice of local population. Investing in agribusiness helps investors take control of not only producing but also of distributing the produce.

Rise of Sudairi Brothers

‘Sudairi Seven’ was powerful alliance of seven full brothers within the house of Saud, royal family of Saudi Arabia. Sudairi seven, seven sons of King Abdul Aziz and Hassa bint Ahmed al sudairi, are largest block of full brothers. Now they along with their sons and grandsons have become important power centre in Saudi royal family.  Sudairi seven included:-

1.       King Fahd,
2.       Prince Sultan ,
3.       Prince Abdur Rehman ,
4.       Prince Nayef,
5.       Prince Turkey,

6.       King Salman,  and
7.       Prince Ahmed.

Bandar bin Sultan house, has been sold to hedge fund billionaire

Polygamy and half siblings.

Polygamy is rampant among Middle Eastern royals. The major reason of marrying many women is to build alliances with other tribes. Assabiyya or group spirit is very strong in Arab tribes. Member of tribe is supported through thick and thin by the other members of clan. The whole tribe stands with the tribal chief. This makes the tribal chief a powerful and influential person in society. When any tribal chief marries daughter of other tribal chief, whole of his wife clan support him in his power struggle. This makes tribal society of Arab world most suited for monarchies.

Polygamy gives rise to many half siblings. The group cohesion among them is less as compared to full siblings. Sudiari seven are largest block of full brothers among sons of first king Abdul Aziz. Owing to their assabiyya they wielded powerful influence. King Faisal, who was not from seven sudairi brothers, relied heavily upon the sudairi brothers in his powerful struggle against king Saud, the second Saudi king. King Faisal continued to favour the sudairi brothers as his allies and appointed them in key posts.

Competence, assabiyya, number, interest in politics and wealth

Besides assabiyya and their number, their rise can be attributed to their intense focus on politics rather than business. Unlike their half brothers they tended to be interested in politics. After being appointed in important posts like interior minister, defense minister and governor of Riyadh, they acquired valuable experience. Their children has also acquired experience in dealing with the outside world for example prince Bandar bin sultan who is son of prince sultan has remained face of Saudi lobby in United States for many decades.

Their number is 7 while their sons and daughters can number in hundreds. For example the deceased Prince Sultan has thirty-two children by his multiple wives. Their vast wealth helps them in the political arena. Prince sultan distributed his 270 billion us dollars among his sons in order to shore up their political position. Hence their competence, assabiyya, number, interest in politics and huge wealth led them to be most powerful alliance within Saudi royal family.

Although sudairi brothers support each other against other princes, each attempts to form, with his sons, another power group.

Sudairi kings

 ‘Sudairi seven’ influence grew since the eldest of them rose to the position of Monarch. The king Fahd who ruled Saudi Arabia from 1982 to 2005 was one of the sudairi brothers and was the eldest of sudairi brothers. He led the sudairi faction in the initial years of their rise.

King Salman, the incumbent monarch, is also from sudairi seven. He became king after the death of king Abdullah. King Abdullah established the family council to reduce the suadiri’s influence but later on changed his mind in order to secure position for his own son. 

Saudi merchant families

Saudi Arabia is rich in oil and is the largest oil exporting country. It has 19^th largest economy. It has many merchant families involved in commerce for many decades and their wealth can rival that of house of Saud. In the pre oil era, these families provided financing to the royal family for running the affairs of state. Later on when oil was discovered these families were rewarded for their loyalty to house of Saud. They were given important development contracts.

List of wealthy family along with short introduction is given as follow.

Alireza

The house of Alireza is the oldest family business in Saudi Arabia. The business history of the family spans more than 150 years. The business of Alireza family includes retailing, travel agency services, manufacturing and distribution of aviation fuel, operating of shipping and freight terminals and real estate.

Ba Khashab

Ba Khashab family is involved in providing logistic services. This family owns the largest transporting business in the kingdom. Besides transport the family has distributorship of ISUZU commercial and passenger vehicles.

Bin Laden 

Osama B. Laden famous terrorist belonging to Bin Laden family

Bin Laden family is renowned for its business connections across the globe. Saudi Bin Laden group is largest construction firm in the world. Recently the contract for the construction of Kingdom Tower in Jeddah has been signed. Kingdom tower is planned to be the world’s tallest building.

Al Gosaibi family

Al Gosaibi family is one of the leading merchant families of the Middle East. Its business is diversified and includes oilfield services for ARAMCO, interests in banking, insurance, shipping, trading, stevedoring and manufacturing.

Jamjoom family

Jamjoom family is a prominent Saudi trading family in GCC and African region. The industries in which the family has stakes includes pharmaceuticals, Medical equipment and supplies, vehicles, hotels, food, writing instruments and stationery, toys, perfumes, skin care, fashion and metal industries.

Juffali Family

Juffali Group is the largest business house in Saudi Arabia. Al Juffali family is currently worth 19.8 billion dollars according to list of Arabs by net worth. Today the family business is looked after by sons of Ahmed Juffali, Ebrahim and Ali.

            

Olayan family

Olayan group is founded by Sulaiman S. Olayan and now it is managed by his sons and daughters.  The group has activities in trading, food processing and restaurants, construction, cleaning products, paper, plastic and fiber and office equipment. The Olayan family invests across the globe and is thought to own more than 10 billion dollars.

AL Rajhi

Al Rajhi family owns the Al Rajhi bank, which is the largest Islamic bank in the world.  Al Rajhi family is now the richest non royal Saudi family.

Al Sulaiman family

Al Sulaiman family is involved in different areas of industry, real estate, and trade. Ghassan Ahmed Al Sulaiman is the sole owner of IKEA Saudi Arabia.

Survival of family firms

List of Hundred oldest companies have been published. You can view it here. Many of the companies in the list are more than 3 centuries old. The oldest firm is more than 1300 years old and it is from Japan. Family-run firms contribute up to 90 percent of the world's economy. Many countries' economies are highly dependent on family businesses, including Germany, the U.K. and Singapore. Leading student of capitalism always mentioned that with the advent of industrial capitalism family firms will disappear. For much of the previous century they proved right but now many family firms are defying their predictions.

This trend can be seen in number of family firms among fortune 500 companies. Family companies in fortune 500 companies have risen from 15% in 2005 to 19% this year. This trends show the rising importance of family firms. This rise can be largely attributed to rise of emerging economies. In emerging economies the institution of family is still strong. For example in India there is joint family system which successfully survived many centuries. Same is the case in many Arabian countries where dynasties are not only ruling in the business world but also in the political world. In Europe same trend can be witnessed as nearly 40% of listed companies are controlled by families.

Unlike the past now family firms groom their successors to manage effectively. They put them in tough and long series of experiment. Young one has to work from most humble position to the highest position available in the family firms.  This reduces the chances of management falling in wrong hands.

Like old money landlord families, before the advent of industrial capitalism, many of the family firms today transferred the family values which help them keep the family wealth in family hands. Inter-cousin marriage, which is common in many emerging economies, helps transfer the shared values to next generation. Another factor which let the family companies survive is the availability of entire consulting industry to plan succession and tackle the inheritance problems.  

Now the family firms are not only taking care of family fortune but also families’ human capital as well. Rich and old money families educate their young ones in best business institutions. Competition among family members further keeps the family members pressurized to perform the best.

According to wealth reports the largest transfer of wealth from one generation to another is going to happen in coming years. The control of huge fortunes may transfer hands. Many people will become millionaire without working their way to riches. This can bring back the old aristocratic age when people advanced in their lives on the basis of heredity status, rather than hard work and merit.

Old money families

Old money is any person or family possessing inherited wealth. Generally it is said shirtsleeves to shirtsleeves in three generation. In other cultures it is said from clogs to clogs in three generations. Similar proverbs convey the same meaning across different cultures.

But there are some old money families who have inherited huge assets. The major portion of old money family comes from landed aristocracy in Europe and other parts of world. The political power of aristocracy doomed as prices of agricultural product fell.

Maintaining old money has become more and more difficult as inheritance taxes has been levied in many countries. Below is a list of some of the families who successfully managed to keep their fortunes in family over a large period of time.

Old Money in United States

Rockefeller family

Rockefeller family fortune was made during late 19th and early 20th century. They made their fortune from oil industry primarily through Standard Oil.

Du Pont family 

Du Pont family has been ranked as richest families of United States by Forbes magazine. Their wealth dates back to mid 1800s.

Forbes family

Forbes family acquired its riches from trading between North America and China. This is an influential family whose members are active in American politics. Well known name is John Kerry, who is United States secretary of state.

But old money in United States is not too old. Below is a list showing old money families from various parts of world.

Old money in other parts of world. 

Old money in other parts is too old. Some claim that their fortunes were made during 12th century.

Spinola family of Genoa

Spinola family is an Italian family. It remained powerful during thirteenth century. Castle Tassarolo is their residence. Their fortune successfully survived many centuries.

Goulaine family

 This is old money French family.

This family owns Château de Goulain for more than 1000 years.

Royal family of Udaipur. 

This family is world's oldest serving dynasty in India.

Scindia family of Gwalior 

This was ruling family of princely state Gwalior. Jyotiraditya Madhavrao Scindia is known to own more than 3 billion us dollars. This family is prominent for more than 270 years.

Rathor family of Jodhpur.

 This is another royal family from India having fabulous wealth for many generations.

House of Thurn and Taxis

This house is from Germany. The family is known for breweries and building castles. The head of the family has been listed as billionaire many times.

House of Hanover

Prince Ernst August is current head and is estimated to own 500 million pounds.

Nawab of Bahawalpur.

 The abbasi family of Bahawalpur governed princely state until their powers were abolished. This family owns many properties. The Punjab University building was gifted by this family. Sadiq Garh Palace in Dera Nawab Sahib was built by this family.