#Hands off investment professional#

In 2017, leaked financial documents known as the Paradise Papers revealed that Charles’s duchy estate had invested millions in offshore companies, including a Bermuda-registered business run by one of his best friends. “It was at this time that the duchy became financially aggressive,” she said. Charles took a more active role in the portfolio in the 1980s and began hiring experienced managers. “When Charles took over at age 21, the duchy was not in a good financial state,” Marlene Koenig, a royal expert and writer, said, citing poor management and a lack of diversification. It has done so without paying corporation taxes like most businesses in Britain are obliged to, and without publishing details about where the estate invests its money. Generating tens of millions of dollars a year, the duchy has funded his private and official spending, and has bankrolled William, the heir to the throne, and Kate, William’s wife. This $949 million portfolio is owned by whomever sits on the throne.īut the value of that trust is dwarfed by the Duchy of Cornwall, the third significant home of royal money, which Charles has long presided over as prince. The next major pot of money is the Duchy of Lancaster. The royals are entitled to take only rental income from their official estates and may not profit from any sales, as they do not personally own the assets. The estate, which official accounts value at more than $19 billion, includes shopping malls, busy streets in London’s West End and a growing number of wind farms. Charles, as king, will serve as its chairman, but he does not have final say over how the business is managed. Piecing together the royal family’s assets is complicated, but the fortune falls generally into four groups.įirst, and most prominent, is the Crown Estate, which oversees the assets of the monarchy through a board of directors. One example of its financial might: The $28 million profit he made from it last year dwarfed his official salary as prince, just over $1.1 million. The Duchy of Cornwall was established in the 14th century as a way to generate income for the heir to the throne and has essentially funded Charles’s private and official expenses. (A duchy is a territory traditionally governed by a duke or duchess.) The 130,000-acre real estate portfolio is nearly the size of Chicago and generates millions of dollars a year in rental income. Today, the Duchy of Cornwall owns the landmark cricket ground known as The Oval, lush farmland in the south of England, seaside vacation rentals, office space in London and a suburban supermarket depot.

#Hands off investment professional#

Over the past decade, he has assembled a large team of professional managers who increased his portfolio’s value and profits by about 50 percent. While his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, largely delegated responsibility for her portfolio, Charles was far more deeply involved in developing the private estate known as the Duchy of Cornwall. LONDON - King Charles III built his own empire long before he inherited his mother’s.Ĭharles, who formally acceded to the British throne on Saturday, spent half a century turning his royal estate into a billion-dollar portfolio and one of the most lucrative moneymakers in the royal family business.