Death of Queen Elizabeth II: Charles inherits the throne and a huge fortune

While British monarchs are not obliged to reveal their private finances, the queen had a personal fortune of 370 million pounds in 2022, according to the Sunday Times, 5 million more than the previous year.

Buckingham Palace, the royal residence in London, and Windsor Castle, about 30 km west of the capital, are state properties, but Balmoral Castle, the royal family's summer resort, and Sandringham, where the royal family traditionally celebrates the New Year, were owned by the monarch and will be passed on to Charles.

The queen also owned a large portfolio of stocks and a royal stamp collection estimated to be worth 100 million pounds, according to the authors of the Times' Rich List 2021.

The queen's fortune adds to Charles' personal wealth, estimated at 87 million pounds by celebritynetworth.com. The famous crown jewels, valued at some 3 billion pounds, belonged symbolically to the queen and are automatically passed on to her successor.

Prince Philip, Elizabeth's husband, left a more modest estate of 30 million pounds when he died in April 2021, according to celebritynetworth. He owned a collection of paintings and 3,000 books, most of which he left to friends and family.

On becoming king, Charles inherited the Duchy of Lancaster, a royal property since the Middle Ages, which in the fiscal year ending in March had generated 24 million pounds of private income for the British monarch.

Lancaster's money goes to the sovereign, the king or queen, by virtue of his or her office, says David McClure, author of a book on royal finances.

Charles, on the other hand, loses the Duchy of Cornwall, which goes to the monarch's eldest son and generates about £21 million a year. It will go directly to William, McClure said.

Charles also receives an annual sovereign grant from the Treasury, set at 15% of the income from the Crown Estate, which includes land and a colossal wind farm, among other things.

This allocation had reached 86.3 million pounds for 2021-2022, including a substantial extension for the renovation of Buckingham Palace granted for ten years (34.5 million pounds for 2021-2022).

The sovereign grant is used to fund expenses related to the official representation of the sovereign or members of his family, including staff salaries, maintenance and cleaning of the palaces, official travel and receptions. 

If the bulk of the Queen's wealth is passed to Charles without inheritance tax, it is thanks to an exemption dating back to 1993, which was designed to prevent the death of several monarchs within a few years of each other from causing the King's or Queen's wealth to vanish into thin air, with each inheritance being reduced by 40 per cent.

Private assets such as Sandringham and Balmoral have both official and private uses, the Treasury said, adding that the monarchy must also have a degree of financial independence from the government of the day.

But this advantage is limited to transmissions between a sovereign and his successor. It is likely that the queen will leave a will and that small sums will go to close family members but not the bulk of the wealth, which will go to Charles, says David McClure.