British monarchs are not required to disclose their private finances, but according to the Sunday Times Rich List 2022, the Queen was worth an estimated £370 million ($426 million), up £5 million on the previous year. The greater part of the late sovereign’s personal estate will pass to Charles intact, without the British Government taking a piece. The real royal wealth — the Crown Estate lands and the Royal Collection of art and jewellery, as well as the official residences and the Royal Archives — is held by the monarchy as an institution. Therefore, they will pass to Charles only in confidence. Similarly, The Crown Jewels, estimated to be worth at least £3 billion, were only symbolically owned by the Queen and automatically passed on to her heir. The Queen’s private wealth will add to Charles’ wealth, which has been estimated at around $100 million by celebritynetworth.com. By comparison, Elizabeth’s late husband Prince Philip left a more modest fortune of £10 million, including an art collection of around 3,000 works, most of which were given to family and friends, the Sunday Times reported. A court in 2021 ordered that his will be sealed for 90 years. As king, Charles inherits the Duchy of Lancaster, a private estate of commercial, agricultural and residential properties that have belonged to royalty since the Middle Ages. The monarch is entitled to use his revenues and uses them largely to cover official expenses. In the 2021-22 financial year, it delivered a net surplus of £24.0m. On the other hand, Charles will lose the Duchy of Cornwall, another private estate, in the south-west of England. It delivered a revenue surplus of around £23m in 2021-2022. Grants and profits Charles will also receive the annual Sovereign Grant from the UK Treasury, which is set at 15 per cent of profits from the Crown Estate, and which the monarch hands over to the government under an agreement dating back to 1760. The Sovereign Grant covers the costs of official engagements for the monarch and other senior members of the royal family, paying the salaries of their staff and the upkeep of the royal palaces In 2021-22, it was set at £86.3 million — equivalent to £1.29 per person in the UK — and included funding for the refurbishment of Buckingham Palace. The Crown Estate portfolio includes commercial and retail properties, including prime locations in central London, as well as rural and coastal land across the country and waters around England and Wales. This makes it one of Europe’s largest real estate empires, with huge commercial interests in areas such as the development of offshore wind power generation. In the financial year to March 2022, it made a net profit of £312.7m, up from £269.3m in 2020-21. Inheritance tax in Britain is charged at 40 percent on estates above the £325,000 threshold. But the new king will not pay inheritance tax on the personal wealth he inherits from his mother, due to rules introduced in 1993. Those assets passed by a sovereign or a sovereign’s spouse to the next monarch are exempt.
