Jim Walton, left, Alice Walton, left center, and Robson Walton, right, chairman of the board of directors of Walmart Stores Inc., stand before a video board showing the original Five and Dime store owned by their father, the late Sam Walton, during the Walmart shareholders' meeting in Fayetteville, Ark., Friday, June 1, 2012. (AP Photo/April L. Brown)
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Jim Walton, left, Alice Walton, left center, and Robson Walton, right, chairman of the board of directors of Walmart Stores Inc., stand before a video board showing the original Five and Dime store owned by their father, the late Sam Walton, during the Walmart shareholders' meeting in Fayetteville, Ark., Friday, June 1, 2012. (AP Photo/April L. Brown)

The Mellons. The Kennedys. The Rockefellers. You know the names already. Now Forbes has compiled the first comprehensive ranking of the richest families in America: 185 dynasties with fortunes of at least $1 billion. They're collectively worth $1.2 trillion. Many are working at increasing their fortunes. Others are merely sleepy heirs, several generations removed from their families' heydays. Nearly all have ties to some of the most storied businesses and brands in American history, including Jack Daniel's, L.L. Bean, Getty Oil, Hallmark and Budweiser.

The wealthiest family in America, and also the world, is the Walton family, which includes the three living children of Wal-Mart Stores founder Sam Walton; the wife of his son John, who died in 2005 in a plane crash; and the two daughters of his brother James “Bud” Walton, who helped found the Arkansas retailer in 1962. They are worth $152 billion, $63 billion more than the second richest family, headed by the politically active and often controversial Koch brothers. The three richest families are worth $301 billion, one fourth of cumulative net worth of all the wealthiest families.

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Unlike our flagship Forbes 400 list of America's richest and our World Billionaires ranks, which focus on individual or nuclear-family wealth, America's Richest Families includes multigenerational families of all sizes, ranging from just 2 brothers to the 3,500 members of the Du Pont clan. Families needed a combined net worth of $1 billion to make the cut. To compile this first list we looked at members of The Forbes 400, descendants of past or deceased Forbes 400 members, families behind the country's biggest private companies and dynasties that had fallen out of our ranks because the fortunes were too dispersed, for starters. (Note: We left out self-made entrepreneurs who founded their companies and already appear with their nuclear family on our Forbes 400. That includes Jack Taylor of Enterprise Rent-A-Car. Also absent are married couples like Tom & Judy Love).

175 Years Later, The Mellons Have Never Been Richer. How'd They Do It?

To value their fortunes we added up their assets, including stakes in public and private companies, real estate, art and cash, and took into account estimates of debt. For those with publicly traded holdings, we used stock prices from the close of trading on June 20, 2014. We excluded any assets irrevocably pledged to charitable foundations. In cases where a company had been sold years ago, we applied a conservative rate of appreciation for the cash, after deducting for capital gains taxes. We attempted to vet these numbers with all the families or their representatives. Some cooperated; others didn't. Think we missed a clan? E-mail readers@forbes.com, and we'll investigate.

AMERICA'S RICHEST FAMILIES:

#1 Walton family
$152B | Age: 52

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This portrait of Sam Walton, his wife and children, decades before his heirs became the wealthiest dynasty in American history, hung in the Wal-Mart Museum in Bentonville, Arkansas. (Photo: Gilles Mingasson/Getty Images)

(Gilles Mingasson/Getty Images)

This portrait of Sam Walton, his wife and children, decades before his heirs became the wealthiest dynasty in American history, hung in the Wal-Mart Museum in Bentonville, Arkansas.

#2 Koch family
$89B | Age: 89

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(Getty Images)

(Getty Images)

Charles Koch, pictured.

#3 Mars family
$60B | Age: 103

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Jay Mallin/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Jay Mallin/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Jacqueline Badger Mars, executive and part-owner of Mars Inc., stands for a photograph at the National Museum of Women in the Arts 25th Anniversary Gala which she co-chaired in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Friday, April 27, 2012. Mars Inc. manufactures food, snacks, pet foods and beverages.

#4 Cargill-MacMillan family
$43 B | Age: 149

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The Cargill family owns an estimated 88% stake of Cargill, the largest private company in America, making six family members individual billionaires. Their $137 billion (revenues) agribusiness firm sells food, processes crops, trades commodities, sources ingredients and provides financial risk management. W.W. Cargill, the son of a Scottish sea captain, started the company as a small grain-storage business in 1865 at the close of the American Civil War. He got rich as railroads expanded westward at the end of the century, turning the Great Plains into America's bread basket. Cargill's son-in-law, John MacMillan, took over the business in 1909, and Cargill remained family-run until 1995, when John's grandson Whitney MacMillan stepped down as CEO. The Cargills live extremely private lives, many of them on ranches and farms in Montana.

#5 (Edward) Johnson family
$39 B | Age: 68

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Abigail Johnson of Fidelity.

#6 Hearst family
$35 B | Age: 127

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(Keystone/Getty Images)

(Keystone/Getty Images)

William Randolph Hearst, the newspaper publishing magnate, with three of his sons during a birthday party thrown for him at the home of film star Marion Davies in Santa Monica, California.

#7 Cox family
$32 B | Age: 116

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Jim Kennedy of Cox Enterprises.

#8 Pritzker family
$29 B | Age: 78

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(AP Photo)

(AP Photo)

Abram Nicholas Pritzker, entrepreneur and real estate dealer who built a business dynasty including the Hyatt Hotel chain, is seen in this August 1983 photo.

#9 S.C. Johnson family
$25.5 B | Age: 128

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(Jeffrey Phelps/AP Images for SC Johnson)

(Jeffrey Phelps/AP Images for SC Johnson)

Fisk Johnson, Chairman and CEO of SC Johnson, reacts after he powered up two new, state of the art wind turbines at Waxdale manufacturing, the company's largest global manufacturing facility.

#10 Duncan family
$25.4 B | Age: 46

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(AP Photo/ Houston Chronicle, Brett Coomer)

(AP Photo/ Houston Chronicle, Brett Coomer)

Dan Duncan poses for a portrait with a pair of his trophy lions on display at his central Texas ranch, Monday, March 13, 2006, in Rosanky, Texas. The Houston billionaire could face criminal charges for shooting a moose and sheep while riding on a helicopter during a big game hunting trip in Siberia in 2002, a newspaper reported Thursday, July 19, 2007.

Full List: The Richest Families In America



Edited by: Kerry A. Dolan & Luisa Kroll with Abram Brown

Reported by: Dan Alexander, Emily Canal, Erin Carlyle , Liyan Chen, Agustino Fontevecchia , Chris Helman, Alex Morrell, Joann Muller, Andrea Murphy, Carl O’Donnell, Natalie Robehmed, Katia Savchuk, Hollie Slade, Chloe Sorvino, Sandhya Subbarao & Clare O'Connor

More on Forbes:

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The Gilded Age Family To Give It All Away: Why The Carnegies Aren't On Our List

How The $1 Billion Kennedy Family Fortune Defies Death And Taxes

Family Misfortunes: 8 Of America's Richest Clans And Their Bitter Fights Over Billions


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