How the British royal family makes money

there's no question that the British royal family is wealthy look at their homes their transportation their weddings their jet-setting they live the lifestyles of the richest people on earth so when Prince Harry and Megan Arkell announced they wanted a new financial relationship with the monarchy it opened up questions about how the British family really make their money and what exactly are Harry and Megan leaving behind it turns out the search for those answers starts with some of the most iconic royal real estate this map shows some of the real estate in the UK that is

associated with the royal family this is Balmoral Castle in Scotland where the Queen spends her summers this is Savoy Chapel nestled between buildings in central London and this is Windsor Castle just outside of London where the Queen often hosts foreign leaders each one of these three properties represents a different way the royal family makes their fortune the first is one of two that falls in the Queen's private wealth which means if she were to leave the throne it would still be hers these can be traced back to the 1800s when Queen Victoria bought them and

they've been passed down through generations the other set of properties that contribute to their private wealth are the duchies am I saying that right duchies Duchess that's right there is something called the Duchy of Lancaster this is a old estate ancestral estate dating back from the 14th century it's now a portfolio of property and it provides a private income for the Queen that portfolio includes historic sites and land throughout the UK which is a lot but the most profitable property are these blocks of commercial real estate in central London which includes Savoy Chapel there's also

the Duchy of Cornwall a hundred and thirty thousand acres of property that includes castles holiday cottages and a cricket stadium in London over the past 60 years the duchies have become increasingly profitable in 2019 they each made just over twenty million pounds for the royal family the income from the Duchy of Cornwall goes to the heir to the throne Prince Charles about five million pounds of that went to his sons William and Harry in 2019 and the income from the Duchy of Lancaster goes to the Queen but there's a catch she only gets that because

she's she's Queen it goes through the job if she indicated tomorrow she wouldn't get thirty million dollars a year it is it goes with the crown as it were and because it goes with the crown it's not really totally a private estate the best guess of the net worth of the Queen the richest royal family member is about three hundred and seventy million pounds that's obviously very rich but it puts her nowhere near the richest people in the world the illusion of the Royal Family's wealth is greater than their actual wealth because of the third

way they make money these properties are part of what's called the Crown Estate the Crown Estate includes iconic landmarks like Windsor Castle Buckingham Palace in the Tower of London it also includes commercial real estate in London and lots of land including the seabed around the UK this group is worth billions of pounds but it doesn't actually figure into the Queen's wealth and the reason behind that can be traced back to a time the Royals really needed money in the 18th century had a long list of of German kings the George's George's one two two four

and they wasted a lot of money and they were terrible with money and he got into lots of trouble with the government and in the end one of the George's George third said you know I'm broke I'll give you all my Crown lands these for the personal land owned by the king and in return you give me a set amount of money so they gave up ownership of all these lands in exchange for taxpayer money that would pay for the royal family's lifestyle this part of their income today is called the sovereign grant between 2018

and 2019 that amounted to about 80 million pounds we don't know exactly how much of the sovereign grant went to Harry and Megan but it accounts for 5 percent of the couple's income as part of their royal titles the other 95 percent comes from the Duchy of Cornwall the sovereign grant funding doesn't go into the Royal Family's pockets it's supposed to enable Her Majesty to carry out her official duties like to travel to pay her staff and to maintain the royal residences even so taxpayer support for the monarchy has long been controversial and that became

evident when Windsor Castle caught fire in 1992 smoke continued to roll from gaping holes in the roof 15 hours and one and a half million gallons of water later as the royal treasures littered the lawn like an upmarket garage sale it was learned there was no fire insurance should you will you pay for the repair of Windsor Castle Patricia in Notting Hill hello let's see why us as the taxpayers should pay for the winds classifiers actually her has that debate continues today every time the sovereign grant report comes out the new home of Megan and

Harry the Duke and Duchess of Sussex cost the public nearly two and a half a million pounds to refurbish that's more than three million dollars but the argument in favor of public funding usually centres on how much people have always loved the royal family and are willing to pay for it the monarchy attracts millions of tourists every year there baby announcements in their weddings and even their scandals are broadcast around the world now the royal family is all about image they don't actually have that much formal power what they do have you know is a

brand you know they didn't call one of the most valuable brands in Britain but a big part of maintaining that brand is to not exploit it if you're working royal you're not really allowed to have a private source of income you're not allowed to cash in that means not working outside of their official royal duties like diplomacy and charity work and that these real estate portfolios are the primary way they make money this is the financial model that Prince Harry and mega Markel are leaving behind in their announcement in early 2020 they said they give

all this up in favor of being financially independent what they be taking with them is their private wealth which is a lot Megan was a successful actress on the TV series suits and Harry inherited millions from his mother Princess Diana they may also keep earning income from the Duchy of Cornwall what they would be giving up is this part of their income and also breaking free from the limitations of taxpayer funding but with that independence comes the fear that they'll be committing the ultimate royal taboo capitalizing off the monarchy and they could be viewed as

using the monarchy to boost their brand they're already in talks with Disney they're talking to Oprah the very future of the monarchy could be at stake here especially if the brand that Megan and Harry have created at Sussex royal eventually eclipses the brand of the British Royals but in one important respect it's rather healthy because what it is done it is raised to the surface a number of issues not just to doing Harry but to do with the whole royal family that haven't been properly addressed how does a royal make a living and maybe it

needs to loosen up a bit to be a bit more flexible [Music]