Last Updated on 11/15/2022 by てんしょく飯
November 14 marks the 74th birthday of King Charles, the new monarch of the United Kingdom this year. In his new role as King, he inherited a gorgeous throne, a jeweled crown, several castles and palaces, and an enormous amount of money.
King Charles has become one of the wealthiest men in England.
Where that money comes from is the personal wealth of the Royal Family. Stamps are one of them, and they are a very large amount. But before we touch on King Charles’ personal wealth, let us first look at the breakdown of “The Firm’s” assets.
The Farm, also known as the royal family, is closely related to King Charles, but at the same time independent of the King himself. The New York Times describes it as “a business that transcends the royal members, including a military-like organization of private secretaries, publicists, chambermaids, chamberlains, chauffeurs, footmen, maids, gardeners, and all those who manage the palace and the lives of the royal family members who live there.
With the above in mind, let us look at its value.
The Firm has billion in assets.
To be clear, this is not King Charles’ personal fortune. However, according to Forbes, “The Firm” has assets worth approximately $28 billion. These include the Crown Estate ($19.5 billion), which is the total amount of land and rights belonging to the King of England as a sole corporation; Buckingham Palace ($4.9 billion), Kensington Palace ($630 million), the Duchy of Cornwall ($1.3 billion), and the Duchy of Lancashire ($190 billion): The Duchy of Lancaster ($748 million), and the Crown Estate Scotland ($592 million).
These assets are for the use of King Charles as monarch, but cannot be sold as they belong to the royal family itself and will be passed on to Prince William when he becomes king (and to Prince George when he ascends the throne, and so on).
However, the Royal Family will have a share of the profits from “The Farm” assets thanks to what is known as a Royal Grant (Sovereign Grant). For example, in 2020, according to Forbes magazine, the Crown Estate made a profit of $475 million (about $50.8 billion at that time) that year, and the royal family got 25% of it. The remaining 75% goes to the British Treasury.
What is interesting is how the royal family will spend the portion of money it receives: the BBC reports that the royal subsidy for 2021-2022 is 86.3 million pounds (about 14.4 billion yen), which was mainly used for the maintenance of various palaces and castles, but also for official visits by the royal himself, not only King Charles, and The money will also be used to pay for official duties. This means that the royal grant will also cover the cost of Prince William and Crown Princess Catherine’s planned visit to the United States at the end of the year.
King Charles gave up the Duchy of Cornwall and acquired the Duchy of Lancaster.
Upon the death of Queen Elizabeth, the title of Duke of Cornwall passed to Prince William. King Charles therefore relinquished the Duchy of Cornwall, a portfolio from one of his personal assets that had been generating huge profits, said to be around 23 million pounds (about 3.8 billion yen) per year.
But there is good news (for King Charles, not for us). King Charles, as monarch, can use the Duchy of Lancaster. The duchy is also a portfolio of land, real estate, and financial investments that reportedly brought in $21.98 million ($3.2 billion) in 2021-2022. That’s a big sum, but considering what he inherited from Queen Elizabeth, it is pocket change for King Charles.
He just inherited 0 million from Queen Elizabeth.
According to a report in The Telegraph, Queen Elizabeth had $500 million in personal investments, “mostly in blue-chip British stocks. It is believed that the bulk of the Queen’s assets went directly to King Charles, including a vast art collection, a glamorous jewelry collection, a private royal residence, and a small collection of stamps. Be advised that this is not just another stamp collection. This one is valued at 100 million pounds (about 16.67 billion yen), so if all else fails, King Charles can just sell the stamps on eBay and be done with it.
Incidentally, according to “Fortune” magazine, Queen Elizabeth has several million dollars deposited in a bank account outside the country, and King Charles probably has access to this account. In addition, Queen Elizabeth inherited the Queen Mother’s 70 million pound fortune (about 11.66 billion yen) when she died.
What are the total assets of King Charles?
Even if the amount may vary by several hundred million dollars depending on the contents of the offshore accounts that are rumored to exist, the King’s assets are estimated to be between $500-600 million (¥730-877 billion). Incidentally, as for inheritance taxes – King Charles does not have to pay them.
According to Fortune magazine, much of King Charles’ newly inherited wealth will be exempt from inheritance taxes, thanks to a bold British law that exempts estates passing to the monarch’s successor (in this case, King Charles) from the 40% inheritance tax normally charged. In other words, even if King Charles inherits all of the Queen’s assets, nothing will be deducted from them. Therefore, it is safe to assume that most of Queen Elizabeth’s assets went directly to the King.
And if you are interested in tax law as you read this, the Memorandum of Royal Exceptions states.
“The Crown as an institution requires sufficient personal resources to enable it to continue to play its traditional role in the life of the nation and to have a degree of financial independence from the governments of its time.”
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