America’s richest family dynasties now control a record $1.9 trillion

01 July 2026 , 16:58

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America’s richest family dynasties now control a record $1.9 trillion

As America’s 250th anniversary approaches, Forbes is celebrating our own version of founding fathers (and mothers): the entrepreneurs behind what have become the largest family fortunes in the country.

Most built one (or more) of the nation’s most successful businesses. Many, though not all, of these companies are still owned and run by the descendants of their founders all these years later. That includes everyone from the Hughes family (estimated fortune: $14.7 billion) behind Public Storage, who are now in their third generation, to the oldest clan on the list, the Du Ponts ($22 billion), who founded what became the chemical giant bearing their name in 1802, and are now in their ninth generation.

Forbes first began tracking individual billionaire wealth in 1918, when oil baron and future philanthropist John D. Rockefeller (d. 1937) was featured as the world’s first and only billionaire in Forbes Magazine. Over the last 13 years, we’ve also periodically ranked America’s richest families, including the Rockefellers, who are now in their seventh generation and tied for 45th on this year’s list, with an estimated $12.5 billion fortune. The cutoff for our first ever ranking of the country’s wealthiest clans in 2014 was just $1 billion. But with billionaire wealth skyrocketing to unprecedented heights (Elon Musk briefly became the first trillionaire this month after all), Forbes raised the table stakes for our families list to $10 billion in 2024.

Forbes found a record 54 multi-generational clans on our second-ever ranking of America’s Decabillionaire Families, up from 45 on that first 2024 list. (The complete list is published here). The combined net worth of this year’s group is $1.9 trillion, nearly $600 billion more than the total two years ago. All but five of these families are already in at least their fourth generation. These clans, some of which have hundreds of family members (or thousands, in the case of the Du Ponts), are behind everything from M&M’s and Chick-fil-A to Windex and Orkin pest control to the Kansas City Chiefs and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Ten newcomers debut on our 2026 ranking. They include Carrollton, Georgia-based cable and wire manufacturer Southwire’s Richards family (estimated fortune: $13.1 billion); the heirs to the late information technology pioneer turned two-time independent presidential candidate Ross Perot, Sr. ($12.8 billion) and the Lockton family ($10 billion) behind the Kansas City, Missouri-based insurance brokerage bearing their name. Also appearing on the list for the first time are the biggest winners of 2025’s biggest IPO: Northfield, Illinois-based medical supplies giant Medline’s founding Mills family ($29.6 billion).

Thomas Brown

Head of Investigations