Sometimes it’s not so great to be a British royal – with the paparazzi and the scandals and all that, but sometimes it is – especially when you are inheriting an estate worth about $1.2 billion.
Prince William, the son of the new King Charles III (successor to Queen Elizabeth II), will inherit the 685-year-old Duchy of Cornwall estate from his father. The estate is about 140,000 acres in southwestern England.
The Queen’s will is not privy to the public (unless it’s leaked), but most guess it is worth at least half a billion dollars in personal assets, such as art, jewelry, investments, and two estates – Balmoral Castle and Sandringham House (both inherited from her father King George VI).
The entire royal family is said to have a combined fortune of about $21 billion, which consists of property and investments. Much of that will be inherited by Charles and his heir, Prince William. William, as the first son of Charles and Diana, is in the line of succession to the throne. (His brother, Harry, is further down on the list of the line of succession.)
Prince William now has two titles – Prince of Wales and Duke of Cornwall.
The British government receives money from the estates, but the royals are not required to pay inheritance, income or capital gains tax. They have, however, voluntarily paid income tax since 1993, partly due to public demand, and Charles will follow this precedent that was set by Queen Elizabeth.
According to the website of the Duke of Cornwall (formerly Charles, now William), money earned from the estate helps fund “public, private and charitable activities.”
In 2021, the Duke of Cornwall, Charles, paid himself $25 million from the Cornwall estate.
King Charles has other estates that will be inherited by William, and even though money goes to the government and there are restrictions on spending, the royal family manages to carve out a nice slice for their own use.
William is also likely to inherit money from his grandmother, Queen Elizabeth.
Sounds like it’s not a royal pain in the you-know-what to be a royal.
