Bettencourt Meyers, the heiress to the L’Oréal cosmetic fortune, is the first name from the long list of billionaire heirs to achieve the status of centibillionaire and the world’s richest woman.

Francoise Bettencourt Meyers, the heiress to the L’Oréal cosmetic fortune and the world’s richest woman. Photo by Reuters 

She inherited the title of ‘the world’s richest woman’ from her mother, Liliane Bettencourt, who passed away in 2017 and left her tens of billions of dollars, along with valuable assets and properties, according to Vox.

The recent ascent of L’Oréal share prices, fueled by a surge in cosmetics and luxury fashion spending over the past few years, was the push that helped Bettencourt Meyers, who owns a 35% stake in the cosmetics giant, become the first woman to amass a fortune surpassing $100 billion.

Yet, Bettencourt Meyers is not alone in inheriting vast wealth from affluent parents.

Last year, Mark Mateschitz became Australia’s richest person with an estimated net worth of $1.6 billion by inheriting his father’s 49% stake in energy drink brand Red Bull, Forbes reported.

Clemente Del Vecchio, 18, also achieved the status of world’s youngest billionaire last year when his father and chairman of eyeglasses giant EssilorLuxottica, passed away and left him large stakes in multiple companies.

According to the Billionaire Ambitions Report 2023 from multinational financial services provider UBS, of the 137 people in the study who achieved billionaire status last year, 53 of them inherited a total of $150.8 billion, more than the collective $140.7 billion that the 84 new self-made billionaires earned in the same time period.

Since the inception of the report nine years ago, 2023 was the first year in which those who became billionaires through inheritances surpassed self-made ones.

And it will not be the last as more than 1,000 aging billionaires are expected to pass $5.2 trillion to their heirs over the next 20 to 30 years, UBS projected.

Minh Hieu (Source: e.vnexpress.net)