Twenty years ago Forbes started publishing the list of the wealthiest people in the world; it was popularly known as the “Billionaires Club”. This year the financial research team found 1,125 billionaires in the world and 99 of them were women. Interestingly only 42% of all billionaires are Americans.
Only 10 women are self-made billionaires the remaining 89 inherited their wealth.
Oprah Winfrey, the Queen of England and JK Rowling do not even make it to the top 10 wealthiest women on the list.
And here they are:
- Liliane Bettencourt is the wealthiest woman in the world with a fortune around 22.9 billion, which makes her the 17th wealthiest person in the world, reports Forbes magazine. Ms. Bettencourt is the 2nd wealthiest person in her homeland of France. She inherited her money from her father, Eugene Schueller, the founder of the cosmetic company L'Oreal, of which she owns 27% of.
- Christy Walton is the second wealthiest woman in the world, who inherited her money as the widow of John Walton (Wal-Mart heir), who died in 2005 when his aircraft crashed. She is said to be worth 19.5 billion dollars this year.
- Alice Louise Walton is the third richest woman in the world with an inherited wealth that is reported at $19 billion dollars. She is the founder of Wal-Mart, Sam Walton's daughter. She is 88 years old and going strong with her donations to the political races this year.
- Jacqueline Mars comes in as the fourth wealthiest woman in the world this year. The 68 year old is the daughter of Forrest Edward Mars and the granddaughter of Frank C. Mars, who founded the Mars candy company. Her wealth this year is listed as being $14 billion dollars and growing as chocolate lovers keep buying M & M's and other candy bars, world-wide. The Mars Company was begun in 1911 and is one of the largest privately held corporations in America.
- Suzanne Klatten holds the fifth spot for being one of the world's wealthiest women at age 45. She inherited from her father Herbert Quandt a large holding in the BMW Company and a 50% stake of the pharmaceutical/chemical company Altana. Her wealth is reported to be $13.2 billion.
So it pays to marry rich…be born rich….or inherit money, if you are a woman. After all, women live longer than men, so the best is yet to come, as they say.
