This story appears in the October 19, 2014 issue of Forbes. Subscribe
Every year The Forbes 400 becomes an increasingly exclusive club.
Examine the latest Rich List, and you'll notice that 33 members of last year's Forbes 400 are gone. For nearly all, their absence is not from poor investing, wild spending or extraordinary giving. They're simply too poor to make the list.
A buoyant stock market helped raise the hurdle to making the Forbes 400 even higher this year: A plutocrat needs a net worth of at least $1.55 billion—$250 million higher and one of the largest year-over-year increases since FORBES started counting the super rich in 1982.
To put a face on this phenomenon, look at Richard Yuengling. After extending the reach of his family’s beer brand to three additional states during 2014, the Pottsville, Pa., brewer boosted his wealth by about $150 million to a total of $1.5 billion. Impressive. But not enough to make the cut.
Another example is George Joseph. The 93-year-old insurance scion came up short at $1.4 billion despite pocketing more than $100 million this year, mostly in dividends and capital appreciation from his company, Mercury Insurance Group.
Still, financial decline is an inescapable part of the Forbes 400, and 10 billionaires were left off the Forbes 400 because their fortunes diminished. For instance, the value of real estate tycoon Alfred Clark’s company,
Another inevitability: death. Six Forbes 400 members died in the past year—a lamentable list including Harold Simmons, the Texas corporate raider who preferred his BBQ steaks large and his takeovers targets small; Samuel Truett Cathy, the controversial Chic fil A. founder who founded the chain on $5,000 in savings and a $95,000 bank loan and became as known for his fried chicken as for his Christianity; and Malcolm Glazer, owner of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Manchester United, who grew a handful of investments in mobile home parks into a sprawling conglomerate that at one point included a company founded by George H.W. Bush.
These 27 dropped off (including 3 we've shifted to our new Richest Families list to reflect wealth spread broadly among family members):
Herbert Allen, $1.5 billion
Nicolas Berggruen, $1.5 billion
Frank Fertitta, $1.5 billion
Lorenzo Fertitta, $1.5 billion
Jeffrey Lorberbaum, $1.5 billion
Gary Magness, $1.5 billion
Nicholas Pritzker, $1.5 billion
Richard Yuengling, $1.5 billion
James Clark, $1.45 billion
Wilma Tisch, $1.45 billion
Alfred James Clark, $1.4 billion
Alan Gerry, $1.4 billion
John Henry, $1.4 billion
George Joseph, $1.4 billion
Roger Penske, $1.4 billion
Joyce Raley Teel, $1.4 billion
Edmund Ansin, $1.35 billion
Dan Wilks, $1.35 billion
Farris Wilks, $1.35 billion
Sidney Kimmel, $1.25 billion
Leon Charney, $1.1 billion
Tom Kaplan, $1 billion
Robert Piccinini, $800 million
Elaine Marshall, can now be found on Forbes’ list of America’s Richest Families
Richard Marriott, can now be found on Forbes’ list of America’s Richest Families
Bill Marriott, can now be found on Forbes’ list of America’s Richest Families
Gayle Cook, passed wealth to son, Carl (No. TK)
Here is a list of this year’s deceased:
Harold Simmons $10 billion
S. Truett Cathy $6.3 billion
Patrick McGovern $5.7 billion (1937-2014)
Malcolm Glazer $4.4 billion
Richard Mellon Scaife $1.5 billion
William Ford SR. $1.35 billion
