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April 21, 2016 at 11:29 AM
It hasn’t been an easy year for the world’s wealthiest individuals.
Volatile stock markets, tanking oil prices and a stronger dollar led to a dramatic reshuffling of wealth around the globe and a drop in billionaire fortunes for the first time since 2009, according to Forbes.
In its 30th annual guide to the world’s richest people, Forbes found 1,810 billionaires, down from a record 1,826 a year ago. Sixteen individuals with ties to the insurance industry — down from 20 last year — made Forbes’ 2016 list of world billionaires.
This year’s billionaires with connections to the insurance industry include the son of a Chicago meat-packer, a former appliance door-to-door salesman, a World War II flight navigator and a passionate environmentalist.
Overall, the United States has 540 billionaires, more than any other country in the world. It’s followed by mainland China with 251 and Germany with 120.
Here are the world’s 16 billionaires with wealth linked to insurance, according to Forbes’ 2016 list.
No. 1,694: Ion Tiriac, 76 (Bucharest, Romania)
Net worth: $1.14 billion.
Source of wealth: banking, insurance, self-made.
Financial and real estate investor Ion Tiriac hold shares in insurance and auto leasing concerns and still runs his high-end car museum dedicated to his cars and motorcycles from Jaguar, Bentley, Mercedes-Benz, Rolls Royce and their ilk.
Tiriac competed in the 1960 Olympics as an ice hockey player and later switched to tennis, eventually coaching several tennis greats, including Boris Becker, Steffi Graf and Goran Ivanisevic. Most recently, he advised Romanian tennis ace Simona Halep to sign sponsorship contracts with companies such as Adidas and Vodafone.
No. 1,577 (4-way tie): William Berkley, 69 (Greenwich, Conn.)
Net worth: $1.14 billion.
Source of wealth: insurance, self-made.
William R. Berkley got the entrepreneurial bug as a young man. He founded insurance company W.R. Berkley Corp. in 1967 with just $2,500 while he was an MBA student at Harvard. The company, which had $5.3 billion in revenue in 2013, does business through 27 subsidiaries that insure everything from mobile surgery units to jewels to fine art. One of its fastest-growing units insures sports and entertainment companies.
Berkley took the company public in 1974. Revenue surpassed the $1 billion mark in 1995 after nearly two decades of acquisitions. He has a nearly 20% stake, though roughly half of his shares are pledged as collateral for loans. For this reason, Forbes applied a 50% discount to the pledged shares. Berkley is chairman and CEO. His son, W. Robert Berkley, is president and chief operating officer.
No. 1,577 (4-way tie): Henry Engelhardt, 58 (Cardiff, United Kingdom)
Net worth: $1.22 billion.
Source of wealth: insurance, self-made.
The son of a Chicago meat packer, Henry Engelhardt aspired to be a journalist before turning to entrepreneurship. He started insurance company Admiral Group in 1993. The Welsh company offers car and home insurance in the United Kingdom and was behind the country’s first online insurance price comparison website.
Based in Cardiff, Admiral also has operations in Spain, France, Italy and the United States. Its American brands include Elephant Auto Insurance and Comparenow.com. Admiral is known for its lighthearted, employee-friendly culture. Its “Ministry of Fun” organizes events for all staff members, such as dress-up days, rock band contests and surfing trips.
Engelhardt announced that he’ll step down as CEO in mid-2016, but he will still be involved in the company in some capacity. He and his wife, Diane, started the Moondance Foundation, and have donated 6.5 million Admiral shares in the past four years.
No. 1,577 (4-way tie): V. Prem Watsa, 65 (Toronto, Canada)
Net worth: $1.04 billion.
Source of wealth: insurance, investments, self-made.
Prem Watsa founded Toronto-based financial services company Fairfax Financial Holdings in 1985 and remains its chairman and CEO. Born in Hyderabad, India, he later joined his brother in Canada, and then enrolled in the University of Western Ontario’s MBA program. He paid his way through school by selling appliances door to door. After a stint as an investment analyst, Watsa struck out on his own in 1984.
Watsa began snatching up insurance companies, modeling his business after the success of his idol: Warren Buffett. Fairfax now maintains property and casualty insurance and reinsurance interests across four continents, and holds stakes in numerous companies, including IBM and phone maker BlackBerry. He also owns a stake in Fairfax India, a publicly traded subsidiary investing in Indian businesses.
No. 1,577 (4-way tie): Surin Upatkoon, 66 (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia)
Net worth: $1.15 billion.
Source of wealth: insurance, telecoms, lotteries.
The Thai national started his career as a manager at his father’s textile company, MWE Weaving Mills, in 1971. He got his biggest break when he participated in the acquisition of a major stake in Multi-Purpose Holdings Bhd., which he later split into MPHB Capital, an insurance and real estate outfit.
More than 60% of Surin Upatkoon’s wealth comes from the 10% stake in Thai telecom InTouch he sold in 2013. He also has interests in gambling company Magnum.
No. 1,476 (tie): Charles Munger, 92 (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Net worth: $1.29 billion.
Source of wealth: Berkshire Hathaway, self-made.
As vice chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, Charlie Munger is Warren Buffett’s right-hand man and investment partner. Berkshire has several subsidiary insurance companies. Munger is also chairman of the Daily Journal Corp., a California-based publisher, and he sits on the board of wholesale retailer Costco.
An Omaha native, Munger attended the University of Michigan, but dropped out to serve as a meteorologist in the U.S. Army Air Corps during World War II. He later graduated from Harvard Law and, in 1959, met Buffett at a dinner party.
Like Buffett, he’s a pragmatic investor and a major philanthropist. In 2013, Munger pledged more than $100 million for new graduate residences at the University of Michigan, and in 2014, he gave $65 million to the University of California, Santa Barbara’s Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics for a new visitor’s residence.
No. 1,476 (tie): Hal Jackman, 83 (Toronto, Canada)
Net worth: $1.24 billion.
Source of wealth: insurance, investments, self-made.
Hal Jackman and his family are the largest shareholders of E-L Financial Corp., a Toronto investment and insurance holding company, which provides insurance and financial services through its subsidiaries, the Dominion of Canada General Insurance Co. and Empire Life Insurance Co.
Born to a former member of parliament, Harry Jackman, Hal Jackman served as the 25th lieutenant governor of Ontario from 1991 to 1997. The University of Toronto alumnus has donated over $40 million to his alma mater and was its chancellor from 1997 to 2003. He chairs the Hal Jackman Foundation, which supports arts and cultural institutions in Toronto.
Jackman has handed over his business to the next generation. His son, Duncan, is the chief executive officer and president of E-L Financial, although Jackman remains the honorary chairman.
No. 1,275: Danil Khachaturov, 44 (Moscow, Russia)
Net worth: $1.5 billion.
Source of wealth: insurance, banking, real estate, self-made.
Khachaturov studied construction and finance at Moscow schools and went to work at privately held BIN Bank and then at Slavneft, an oil company led at the time by billionaire Mikhail Gutseriev.
Between 2001 and 2003, he and his partners spent $60 million buying 75% of then-insolvent Rosgosstrakh from the government. In 2010, they bought the remaining 25%. What was once the only retail insurance company in the Soviet Union, Rosgosstrakh is still Russia’s largest insurance company, with $2.4 billion in revenue. In May 2015, the Bank of Russia suspended the insurer’s license for 13 days after receiving 2,300 complaints from clients.
No. 1,198: George Joseph, 94 (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Net worth: $1.54 billion.
Source of wealth: insurance, self-made.
Back in 1961, door-to-door insurance salesman George Joseph realized that Auto insurance companies weren’t screening their customers correctly. That led him to start Mercury General, which offered cut-rate deals to safer-than-average drivers.
Joseph, a former World War II flight navigator, is still on the job today, serving as chairman of his $3 billion (in sales) publicly traded insurer. In 2012, the nonagenarian backed Proposition 33, a California ballot measure that would have given drivers “persistency discounts” for maintaining Auto insurance. Critics said it would drive up prices for people who hadn’t been able to afford insurance. It did not pass.
No. 421: Vanich Chaiyawan, 84 (Bangkok, Thailand)
