From old-money dynasties such as the Mellons and the Johnsons to ultra-wealthy newcomers including the Zuckerbergs and Buffetts, America’s wealthiest families have some serious cash. Read on to see which clan is the richest in your state, using data from Forbes correct as of 23 March 2022, unless otherwise stated.
Together with siblings Dell, Elton and Jane, James Stephens (pictured) inherited his family’s empire, EBSCO Industries, when his father passed away in 2005. The company grew from humble origins as a door-to-door magazine subscription service, and the late Elton B. Stephens grew it into one of the 200 largest privately-owned companies, leaving his heirs with a plentiful inheritance of $4 billion, according to 2014 figures from Forbes. Pictured here is Bryson Stephens, EBSCO’s current chairman and Elton's grandson.
Partners Leonard Hyde and Jonathan Rubini own equal stakes in JL Properties, Alaska’s biggest real estate firm with a portfolio market value of more than $2 billion. Hyde and Rubini, President and CEO of the company respectively, own and manage some of Alaska’s most iconic buildings, including the JL Tower (pictured) and the ASRC Building. While their wealth may be modest compared to others in this round-up, this business has allowed each family to accumulate net worths of $300 million apiece according to Forbes in 2019.
The Garcias have made their billions in the auto industry, with Ernest Garcia III (pictured) having founded used car buying and selling website Carvana in 2012, of which his father, Ernest Garcia II, is a majority shareholder. Ernest Garcia Senior also operates DriveTime Automotive, which is the fourth-biggest used car retailer in the US. Both Ernest Garcia II and his son made it onto the Forbes 400 list in 2021, and currently have fortunes of $9.9 billion and $4 billion respectively, easily making the Garcias the richest family in Arizona.
The richest family in Arkansas, and in fact the whole of the US, the Waltons control around 50% of supermarket behemoth Walmart, America's largest business with annual revenues of $524 billion for the financial year 2020. Brothers Sam (pictured with his wife and children) and James 'Bud' Walton co-founded the business in 1962. Today Sam's children Jim, Rob and Alice Walton are the main shareholders, while Bud's children Ann Walton Kroenke (who is married to Stanley Kroenke; look out for them later on this list) and Nancy Walton Laurie hold smaller shares. Sam’s daughter-in-law Christy and her son Lukas have also inherited large sums from the Walton fortune following the passing of Christy’s husband John T. Walton in 2005. These seven family members had a combined fortune of $247 billion in 2020, according to Forbes.
For years, the wine-producing Gallos were California's wealthiest clan. Then Facebook came along and today it's the Zuckerbergs: Mark Zuckerberg, Priscilla Chan and their daughters Max and August. Chan's personal net worth is not known, but Zuckerberg alone is worth an enormous $77.4 billion. That said, the Facebook billionaires have committed to donating the bulk of their fortune to good causes through the Giving Pledge set up by Bill and Melinda Gates with Warren Buffett.
Over in Colorado, the Anschutz family is tops. The family fortune derives from patriarch Philip Anschutz (pictured), who worked in his father's oil business in the 1960s, before moving into sports, entertainment and more. Today, the tycoon and his family own everything from the NHL LA Kings and Crypto.com Arena (formerly the Staples Center) to the Coachella Music Festival, giving him a net worth of $11 billion, according to Forbes.
The Sackler family still owns 100% of Purdue Pharma, the firm behind the controversial opiate painkiller OxyContin. Physician brothers Mortimer and Raymond (pictured with his late wife Beverley) bought the company in 1952 and made the lion’s share of their fortune from the drug, which was released in 1996 and has been blamed for fueling America's opioid crisis. The company has since sought out bankruptcy protection as nearly every state has filed lawsuits against the brothers' descendants. And while the Sacklers haven’t admitted to malpractice, they have agreed to contribute $6 billion to the settlement and relinquish control of the family business. As it stands, the family is worth $10.8 billion, according to 2020 data from Forbes.
Down in Delaware, the Gore family is number one. In 1969, father and son team Bill (pictured with his wife Genevieve) and Bob Gore invented the go-to sports fabric Gore-Tex by accident. Bob Gore was chairman and a major shareholder of the family business W. L. Gore & Associates, which markets the material and turns over $3.8 billion annually, until he passed away in September 2020. Bob’s nephew Bret Snyder has since been named president and CEO of the company, and the entire family fortune currently adds up to $8.2 billion.
The Peterffys are the most affluent family in Florida. Hungarian-born Thomas Peterffy (pictured) heads up electronic brokerage firm Interactive Brokers, which he established in 1978 as T.P. & Co, and has earned him an impressive net worth of $21.4 billion, according to Forbes. Unlike fellow Hungarian-born financier and Democrat donor George Soros, Peterffy is a prominent supporter of the Republican Party and admirer of Donald Trump. He is even a member of the Mar-a-Lago Club, Trump’s exclusive members-only club in Palm Beach.
Atlanta media conglomerate Cox Enterprises owns a wide array of newspapers, radio stations and TV channels in its company portfolio and has annual revenues of $21 billion. Cox Enterprises was founded by James M. Cox in 1898, and his five living heirs, who include current company chairman Jim Kennedy (pictured), still control the majority of the company. Jim is worth $8 billion today, as is his sister Blair Parry-Okeden. Their cousins James Cox Chambers, Margaretta Taylor and Katharine Rayner are each worth $5.3 billion. In total, the Cox family has a combined net worth of $31.9 billion.
The founder of eBay, Pierre Omidyar lives with his wife Pamela and their three children in Honolulu, making them Hawaii's richest family with a fortune of $12.9 billion. The Omidyars are renowned philanthropists, having committed hundreds of millions of dollars to good causes throughout the world.
The richest person in Idaho may be health products entrepreneur Frank VanderSloot, who has a net worth of $3.2 billion, but the wealthiest family is the Simplot clan. The family controls the agribusiness company founded by frozen French fries inventor J. R. Simplot (pictured) back in 1929, J.R Simplot Co., which generated $6 billion in sales in the 2020 financial year. The company was supplying a third of America’s French fries back in 2008, shortly before J. R. Simplot passed away, and the company has left the clan with a healthy fortune of $7.7 billion, according to data from December 2020.
The richest person in Illinois is hedge fund chief Ken Griffin, who has a substantial net worth of $25.5 billion. However, his fortune pales in comparison to the amassed wealth of the Pritzkers. The family made a colossal amount from shrewd investments in firms such as Berkshire Hathaway, as well as ownership of the Hyatt Hotels Corporation. The hotel group was founded by Jay Pritzker in 1957, and when he died his fortune went to his siblings and then their children. Forbes data from 2020 places the Pritzker family fortune at $32.5 billion. Pictured is Jay Pritzker’s venture capitalist and politician descendent J.B. Pritzker, who is worth $3.6 billion.
The Cook Group was established in 1963 by Gayle and Bill Cook in the spare bedroom of their Bloomington home. From humble beginnings, the medical device company has grown to turn over more than $2 billion annually. The couple passed ownership of their company onto the current CEO, their son Carl Cook (pictured), over the course of 15 years before Bill’s death in 2011 to avoid high tax payments, according to Bloomberg. He is now the richest individual in Indiana, with a net worth of $11.9 billion.
Fittingly in a state where agriculture is big business, the richest family is none other than the Stines, the owners of America’s largest independent seed company, Stine Seed. The firm was founded in the 1950s by the father of current head honcho Harry Stine (pictured), the only billionaire in the state of Iowa, with a net worth of $7.2 billion.
Fred C. Koch founded the oil refining company that became Koch Industries in 1940 and it was passed on to his four sons on his death in 1967. The company pioneered a new refining method, which generated billions of dollars over the years. Charles and David successfully sued their brothers William and Frederick for control of the firm during the 1980s and 1990s. David (pictured left, with Charles) passed away in late 2019, but today Charles and David's widow Julia Flesher Koch are each worth $61.9 billion, according to Forbes, while brother Bill Koch is worth $1.6 billion. These three family members alone are worth $125.4 billion.
Kentucky’s wealthiest citizen is Tamara Gustavson, with a net worth of $8.6 billion. Tamara's wealth comes from the storage company Public Storage that her late father, B. Wayne Hughes, founded in 1972. Hughes gave the bulk of his shares to his daughter, as well as his son B. Wayne Hughes Jr, who is worth $2.2 billion. B. Wayne Hughes Sr went on to set up home rental company American Homes 4 Rent in 2011, and had amassed a fortune of $3.3 billion by the time he passed away in August 2021.
The richest family in Louisiana is a divided one. After the late owner of the NFL's New Orleans Saints and NBA's New Orleans Pelicans, Tom Benson (pictured center), changed his will in 2014, his family fought over the terms. Benson had initially intended to leave his shares to his daughter Renee Benson (center right) and his grandchildren, but changed his will in 2014 to favor his third wife Gayle Benson (pictured left). When Tom died in 2018, Gayle received control of the teams and is currently the state’s richest person, with a net worth of $3.8 billion.
Like the Pritzker family, Maine's Alfond clan has made incredible sums of money from Berkshire Hathaway shares. The family's Dexter Shoe Company, which was founded by patriarch Harold Alfond in 1956, was sold to Berkshire Hathaway in 1993 for hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of stock. Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett has described the deal as the worst he ever made. Alfond's living children Bill, Ted and Susan are worth $3 billion each today, according to Forbes. That brings the family's combined net worth to $9 billion.
Back in 1952, Ted Lerner borrowed $250 from his wife Annette and set up real estate firm Lerner Enterprises in Rockville. Since then, the real estate mogul has developed property valued in the billions, bought a major baseball team and became the largest private landowner in the Washington DC area. Today, Ted Lerner and family are estimated to be worth $4.6 billion.
Together with her father Ned and two siblings, Abigail Johnson (pictured), who has been described as the most powerful woman in finance, owns a controlling stake in Fidelity, the fund management company started by her grandfather Edward C. Johnson II. Abigail took over from her father as CEO in 2016, and is currently the richest person in the family with a net worth of $22.3 billion, while her father Edward 'Ned' III has a fortune of $10.1 billion.
The Meijer family fortune derives from Dutch immigrant Hendrick Meijer, who opened the first of the clan's namesake grocery stores in Greenville, slap bang in the middle of the Great Depression. These days, Meijer counts over 240 locations throughout the Midwest, with annual sales of $18.1 billion. This image shows the late matriarch Lena Meijer opening a new store with son Hank to her left. Hank and his brother Doug took over the family business in 1990 and remain on its board of directors; together they are worth $16.8 billion.
Of the 90 or so Cargill-MacMillan family members that jointly own 88% of Cargill, America’s largest privately-owned company, 12 are billionaires. The family comes from old money, and W.W. Cargill started the company as a single grain storage warehouse in 1865. Today it makes annual sales of $114.6 billion and the family shares an exceptional fortune of $47 billion, according to Forbes data from December 2020. The image shows the late company patriarch Cargill MacMillan Jr.
Stanley Kroenke (pictured center) is Missouri’s richest man, with a fortune of $10.7 billion, and his wife Ann Walton Kroenke, the daughter of the late Walmart co-founder Bud Walton, has her own sizable fortune of $9 billion. Together the two make a formidable pair, with a combined wealth of $19.7 billion. Their portfolio is an international mix that includes 30 million square feet of real estate, American football team the Los Angeles Rams, and Arsenal Football Club in the UK.
Starting out in the late 1950s as a low-paid construction worker, Dennis Washington formed his first construction company in 1964, and later diversified into mining, real estate, aviation and more, making billions in the process. These days, the tycoon and his wife Phyllis devote much of their time to philanthropy – their charitable foundation has donated millions to numerous non-profits, including $840 million donated by the couple themselves. They have a net worth of $7 billion.
Warren Buffett's family is technically Nebraska's wealthiest, though the boss of famed conglomerate Berkshire Hathaway isn't planning to leave his kids his entire fortune by any means. Buffett (pictured here with his son Peter and daughter Susan) has signed the Giving Pledge he helped found, promising to give away more than 99% of his wealth during his lifetime or at death. Buffett has a current net worth of $126.5 billion, according to Forbes, although his 5% stake in Apple is thought to be worth a record $162 billion now the tech giant has become the world's first $3 trillion-dollar company.
As you'd probably expect, Nevada's richest family made its money from gambling. Patriarch Sheldon Adelson, who started his first business at the age of 12, got into casinos in 1988 and built The Venetian in the late 1990s, cashing in on its success. The chairman of the Las Vegas Sands Corporation passed away in January 2021 at the age of 87, leaving his then-fortune of $26.8 billion to his family, including his wife Miriam (pictured). Miriam is currently worth $28.6 billion.
The super-secretive Reimann family, whose company now owns Krispy Kreme and Pret A Manger, are New Hampshire's most moneyed clan. The family business began in 1828 with German chemist Ludwig Reimann, who teamed up with Johann Adam Benckiser (pictured) to create a successful chemical company. Ludwig's descendants later put the money from this venture into Luxembourg-based investment firm JAB Holding Company.
Today four of the nine adopted children of Albert Reimann Jr own the business – Wolfgang, Renate, Matthias, and Stefan – after their siblings sold them their shares. Their current combined net worth is around $14.4 billion, while their sister Andrea Reimann-Ciardelli was listed as having a net worth of $720 million by Forbes in 2019, bringing the family’s combined wealth to approximately $15.1 billion. In 2019 the family gave €10 million ($11.9m) to The Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany to help survivors of the Nazi regime in reparation for the forced labor the family's business benefited from during World War II under Albert Reimann Sr and Jr's control.
Dubbed 'The First Family of Soup', the Dorrances control the celebrated Campbell Soup fortune. In 2018, Dan Loeb, founder of Third Point Management, a shareholder in the soup company, announced his intention to oust all 12 members of the company's board due to the company's poor performance. However, Loeb was unsuccessful, and descendants of the founder remain the company’s biggest shareholders. Today only three of 11 descendants remain on the board, including siblings Bennett Dorrance and Mary Alice Dorrance Malone, who are worth $2.9 billion and $3.6 billion respectively. Their cousin Archbold Van Beuren also remains on the board, and owns 1.35% of the $14.8 billion business through his Brandywine Trust. Other heirs include Charlotte Colket Weber, who is worth $1.8 billion, and John Dorrance III, who is worth $2.7 billion. In December 2020, Forbes listed the entire Dorrance family fortune as $15 billion.
The Chase family is the richest in New Mexico. Patriarch Mack C. Chase cleaned up in the 1960s and 1970s in the oil and natural gas industry in Texas and his home state, and was reported as having a $700 million fortune by Forbes in 2019. His sons Robert and Chance, and daughter-in-law Claire (pictured), are heavily involved in the family business.
Michael Bloomberg is the richest person in The Big Apple, with a staggering net worth of $82 billion. After being fired from Wall Street, Bloomberg co-founded financial information and media company Bloomberg LP in 1981, which has annual revenues of over $10 billion, according to Forbes. This media mogul then turned his attention to politics: after serving as the Mayor of New York from 2002-2013, Bloomberg ran an unsuccessful campaign to become the Democratic representative in the 2020 Presidential election, a failed attempt that cost him more than $1 billion.
Since co-founding the Statistical Analysis System (SAS) Institute in 1976, data guru Jim Goodnight has made billions crunching numbers, and the company turned over $3.1 billion in 2019, according to Forbes. Goodnight’s family is now the richest in North Carolina and Jim alone has a net worth of $7.3 billion according to Forbes, although Bloomberg has put his net worth as high as $15.6 billion. Family members include Jim's wife Ann, a patron of the arts, and their retail executive daughter Leah.
North Dakota-born and raised, Gary Tharaldson owns a group of namesake companies that builds and manages business-oriented hotels across America. Together with his family, the Fargo-based entrepreneur (pictured here with his wife Connie) was reported as having a net worth of $1 billion by Forbes in 2019, making him the first billionaire in the state and the figurehead of North Dakota’s richest family.
The Wexners are the most affluent family in Ohio. Patriarch Les Wexner founded The Limited clothing company in 1964 and built a formidable retail group over the years, adding names including Victoria's Secret, Henri Bendel and La Senza. Wexner found himself in the public eye in 2019 thanks to his ties to Jeffrey Epstein, who was his confidant and financial manager from the early 1990s until the mid-2000s. Wexner and family have a combined net worth of $5.8 billion.
Tom and Judy Love (pictured center) founded Love’s Travel Stops and Country Stores in 1964 with a $5,000 loan from Tom's parents. Over 55 years later the venture has made them the richest family in Oklahoma, with a fortune of $9.8 billion. The convenience store chain is very much a family affair, with both Tom, Judy and three of their four children working for the company.
The co-founder of Nike and his family are Oregon's wealthiest clan. Phil Knight established the sportswear giant with Bill Bowerman in 1962 as Blue Ribbon Sports and is still closely involved with the company. His filmmaker son Travis (pictured here with his father) runs Laika, the family's animation studio, and the family has a joint net worth of $50.5 billion.
Read more about Nike and other big companies that started with nothing
Scots-Irish immigrant Thomas Mellon founded Mellon Bank, the source of the family's wealth, back in 1867. Mellon left a vast estate to his children, who invested wisely and multiplied their inheritance, including Andrew Mellon, who invested in companies that would become Alcoa and Gulf Oil. Another notable scion was Thomas’ great-great-grandson Matthew Mellon (pictured here with his wife Nicole), who was the family’s figurehead until he died in tragic circumstances in 2018. The Mellon fortune was valued at $11.5 billion in December 2020.
The Zuckers are also renowned for their philanthropy. Together with her late husband Jerry, Anita Zucker founded chemicals company InterTech Group in 1982 and the couple went on to acquire the Hudson's Bay Company, one of North America's oldest firms. Following Jerry's death in 2008, Anita served as Governor of the company, until it was sold later that year. The family fortune of $1.8 billion is shared between Anita and her three children Jonathan, Andreas and Jeffrey, and Anita is the only billionaire in South Carolina.
Staying with mega-philanthropists, the Sanfords put other billionaire families to shame with their lavish giving. Patriarch T. Denny Sanford, who owns the high-risk credit card provider First Premier Bank, has given more than $1.6 billion to charity, although the banking mogul still has an estimated net worth of $3.4 billion, according to the most recent Forbes figures.
Tennessee's richest family, the Frists are worth some $21.4 billion at the time of writing. Physicians Thomas Frist and his son Thomas Frist Jr. (pictured) co-founded Hospital Corporation of America in 1968 and turned it into the largest operator of private healthcare facilities in the world. Other prominent members of the family include philanthropist Mary F. Barfield and physician-turned-politician Bill Frist.
In 2020, Elon Musk relocated his business dealings from Silicon Valley to the Lone Star State after officials didn’t let him open Tesla factories in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. He then moved to Texas in December. The Tesla CEO is currently the richest person on the planet, according to Forbes, and is currently around $70 billion richer than the second richest, Jeff Bezos. On 25 October 2021, Musk's net worth soared by $36 billion in just one day, after American car rental company Hertz Global Holdings placed an order for 100,000 Teslas. It’s uncertain who shares his incredible $266.1 billion fortune, but the entrepreneur has seven children, including his youngest son X Æ A-Xii and daughter Exa Dark Sideræl. Musk is pictured here with his mother Maye.
The late Larry H. Miller was one of Utah's all-time most successful businesspeople, counting everything from car dealerships to sports teams and movie theaters in his bulging portfolio. Following his death in 2009, ownership of the companies passed to wife Gail (pictured) and four of the multitasking tycoon's children. Gail had a net worth of $3.2 billion in 2020.
The Abeles aren’t the wealthiest bunch in this round-up, although they do top the ranking in Vermont. The co-founder of medical device company Boston Scientific, patriarch John Abele has cashed in hundreds of millions of dollars off the back of the firm's success and was worth $640 million in 2019, according to Forbes.
When Forrest Mars Sr. died in 1991, the confectionery tycoon bequeathed Mars Inc. to his three children: Jacqueline (pictured here with her granddaughters); Forrest Mars Jr.; and John Mars. When Forrest Jr. passed away in 2016, leaving behind a fortune of more than $25 billion, his third of the Mars business came under the control of his four daughters. The remaining Mars siblings, with their extended family, have complete control over the confectionery and pet foods company, which has a multitude of popular brands and an enormous annual turnover of $37 billion according to Forbes. With that kind of income, it’s unsurprising that the combined wealth of the family’s six billionaires comes to $94 billion.
The Amazon founder stepped back from the business that made his $190.7 billion fortune in July 2021 to focus on other projects such as his space company Blue Origin, which completed its first crewed space mission on 20 July with Bezos on board. In 2019, Bezos had to part with $38 billion in a record-breaking divorce settlement with his ex-wife MacKenzie (pictured right). The settlement gave novelist MacKenzie the title of richest woman on the planet, and she now has a net worth of $44.9 billion. In July 2020, MacKenzie announced she was changing her surname to Scott and had given away $1.7 billion of her wealth to charitable organizations, and she has continued to donate since. Combined, Bezos and Scott have a fortune of $240 billion.
The richest person in West Virginia, Jim Justice is also the current Governor of the state and hit the headlines a couple of years ago for switching from the Republican to the Democratic Party and back again. The former mining and agribusiness billionaire hit financial hardship in 2021, after it was revealed that he owed a whopping $850 million to the now-defunct Greensill Capital. Nevertheless, Jim and his family currently own more than 50 companies, including the stunning Greenbrier resort, which brings their net worth to a reported $513.3 million.
This moneyed dynasty – who aren't related to the other Johnson family that appear in this round-up – wholly own cleaning products company S.C. Johnson & Son. Founded by Samuel Curtis Johnson Sr., the famous Wisconsin firm has a portfolio of brands that includes Mr. Muscle, Pledge and Ziploc. Sam Johnson Jr led the firm from 1966 to 2000, and now his four heirs have taken on the mantel. Each heir, including current Chairman and CEO H. Fisk Johnson III, is worth $3.6 billion today, and the total family fortune adds up to around $37 billion, according to Forbes data from December 2020.
Swiss-born Hansjörg Wyss founded medical device manufacturer Synthes USA in 1979 and went on to sell the company to Johnson & Johnson in 2012 for $20.2 billion. The Wysses, who reside in Wilson, are major charity donors, having doled out millions to organizations that protect the environment, promote social justice and undertake scientific research. Hansjörg's net worth is currently $5.1 billion, while his daughter Amy has an estimated net worth of $2.1 billion, meaning the family's total wealth reaches $7.2 billion.
Now read about the Chinese company dividing the Western world