How To Keep A Large Fortune

Heard the joke about how the best way to make a small fortune in the sailing industry is to start with a large one? Or how Sailing is the fine art of getting wet and becoming ill, while going nowhere slowly at great expense?

And while ‘boat’ is an acronym for ‘Break Out Another Thousand’, not all boats are created equal. Some require more zeroes, which would explain how two huge sponsors of the sport are able to now hold on to their money.

After paying for three America’s Cup campaigns with his Alinghi team (2003, 2007, 2010),
Pharmaceuticals heir Ernesto Bertarelli and his wife Kirsty have been crowned the richest husband and wife in the UK, with a fortune of £11.5bn. The businessman and the former Miss UK saw their joint wealth increase by more than £1bn this year, according to the Sunday Times Rich List.

This year’s top ten richest couples are worth £39.9bn between them.

Aside from the Bertarellis, the only other couple on the list to see their fortune increase by more than £1bn in the past year were Oscar-nominated actress Salma Hayek and her husband Francois-Henri Pinault, both of which had close ties with the 2008-9 Volvo Ocean Race and Puma Ocean Racing team. Hayek was the boats ‘godmother’ and PPR, for which Pinault was CEO, owned Puma. But when the team rolled into the 2011-12 race, Puma was no longer the main sponsor.

And that, class, is how you can keep a large fortune.