The richest Americans

Wealth is relative, and the value of the dollar is far from fixed. So this ranking of American plutocrats measures their total wealth as a fraction of U.S. GDP at their time of death (or for Gates, 2006).

Stephen Van Rensselaer
1764-1839
Stephen Van Rensselaer
Member of the Erie Canal commissions and president of the State's first board of agriculture.

Industry: Land

Wealth at death: $10,000,000

Wealth/GDP: 1/194

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The Wealthy 100, by M. Klepper and R. Gunther (updated by the authors)
The Fractional Life With jewelry, yachts and vineyards available by the slice, even the superrich are learning to share. Here are seven ways to enjoy the luxury life. (more)
Almanac of American Wealth Who's got it and how they're spending it. (more)
How they give back The largest donations in U.S. history. (more)

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Most stock quote data provided by BATS. Market indices are shown in real time, except for the DJIA, which is delayed by two minutes. All times are ET. Disclaimer. Morningstar: © 2018 Morningstar, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Factset: FactSet Research Systems Inc. 2018. All rights reserved. Chicago Mercantile Association: Certain market data is the property of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. and its licensors. All rights reserved. Dow Jones: The Dow Jones branded indices are proprietary to and are calculated, distributed and marketed by DJI Opco, a subsidiary of S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC and have been licensed for use to S&P Opco, LLC and CNN. Standard & Poor's and S&P are registered trademarks of Standard & Poor's Financial Services LLC and Dow Jones is a registered trademark of Dow Jones Trademark Holdings LLC. All content of the Dow Jones branded indices © S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC 2018 and/or its affiliates.