Have you heard that it’s a tough time for the richest of the rich?
Forbes’ closely watched listing of the wealthiest people in the world in March estimated that 46% of the billionaire club—a group with about 2,150 members—saw a dip in fortune from year-ago levels.
Orange County clearly didn’t get that message.
This week’s edition of OC’s Wealthiest includes 46 members with a net worth valued at $500 million or more, 25 billionaires, and a combined fortune of about $93 billion.
Each of those figures are all-time highs for the Business Journal’s annual listing, now in its 19th edition.
The combined fortune of those members is nearly the annual GDP of Venezuela, the world’s 62nd largest economy when ranked by country (OC’s GDP: about $250 billion).
Only one returning member on the list saw a decline in estimated fortune, bond king Bill Gross. That was largely the result of the recently retired co-founder of PIMCO putting $380 million into a new philanthropic foundation.
Furthermore, we believe our estimates, based on a variety of metrics—from the 5.5% year-over-year gain in the S&P 500, to individual company stock prices that account for a bulk of certain members’ fortunes, to falling cap rates for real estate properties—are well on the conservative side.
Most of our increases for specific entries are tied to one or more key financial indicator, or because we’ve gleaned additional information about specific individuals from trusted sources or the individual themselves.
The individual profiles of the members of OC’s Wealthiest start on page 5.
Biggest Getting Bigger
The top of the list shows some notable examples of standout growth; 12 of the billionaires on the list increased their wealth by $300 million or more last year.
Irvine Co.’s Donald Bren takes the top spot on the list, as he has in all prior editions.
We’ve estimated the country’s wealthiest real estate owner to have a fortune of $17.7 billion. It’s his highest amount ever; a decade ago we cited a $12 billion figure. Both Forbes and Bloomberg estimate a figure slightly below ours.
That said, there’s plenty of knowledgeable sources who insist our figure is well below Bren’s true worth.
It’s a refrain we hear of numerous entries on the listing.
Methodology
Our listings are limited to individuals who live here or those who derive most of their wealth from OC.
Our definition of “worth” includes stocks, real estate and other assets held by individuals after debt, along with other factors.
To come up with our list, we’ve spent weeks looking into individual holdings, company assets, public records and press reports, and talked with numerous sources.
Even so, our listing comes with caveats. Like Forbes and similar listings, our numbers are conservative, ballpark figures. We’ve done our best to catalog assets, but only the people on our listing know their true value.
Nor is our listing all-inclusive. We’ve done our best to track down who we believe are OC’s wealthiest people. We are sure to have missed people.
We look forward to comments.
