"Forbes" rich list

Young billionaires have almost always inherited wealth

Exciting analysis of the latest "Forbes" list of the super-rich: According to "NZZ", young billionaires around the world have generally inherited their wealth - and in the coming years, the number of billionaire heirs worldwide will rise sharply.

According to Forbes, the Austrian Mark Mateschitz has an estimated fortune of 39.6 billion US dollars at the age of 31. However, the son of Red Bull founder Dietrich Mateschitz, who died in 2022, is not the only one who already has a fabulous fortune at a young age. He has one thing in common with many others on the list of young billionaires: he inherited wealth.

Billionaires under 30 all inherited wealth according to Forbes
According to an analysis by the NZZ, the latest Forbes list includes 15 billionaires who are even younger than 30. They are all heirs.

One example is the 29-year-old Italian Leonardo Maria Del Vecchio, who, together with his two siblings, inherited a fortune from their father Leonardo Del Vecchio, founder of the sunglasses company Luxottica (e.g. Ray-Ban, Oakley). The fortune of the three children is currently estimated at 4.7 billion dollars each.

Incidentally, the youngest billionaire in the world is 19-year-old Brazilian Livia Voigt. Her grandfather, Werner Ricardo Voigt, who died in 2016, co-founded the turbine manufacturer WEG. Livia Voigt and her older sister Dora reportedly inherited shares in the company worth 1.1 billion dollars.

Around 1000 billionaires will soon bequeath their fortunes
The number of young super-rich is likely to rise sharply in the coming years. The reason: some of the baby boomer generation have built up enormous wealth - and will pass this on to the next generations such as Generation X or the millennials. According to the UBS report from the end of 2023, around 1,000 billionaires will pass on their wealth to their children in the next 20 to 30 years.

According to the NZZ analysis, the New York Times also reported a "major transfer of wealth": over the next two decades, the richest 1000 Americans are likely to pass on more than 5.2 trillion dollars to their descendants. This is also due to the fact that the value of real estate and shares has multiplied in recent decades.

US superstar Taylor Swift, 34, was the first musician to become a billionaire based solely on the success of her songs and concert tours.(Bild: APA/Evan Agostini/Invision/AP)

Of course, there are also young people in the "Forbes" list who have built their fortune themselves. The best example of this is US superstar Taylor Swift. The 34-year-old was the first female musician ever to become a billionaire thanks solely to the success of her songs and concert tours.