It was always Joe Kennedy's emphatic wish that money never be discussed, at the family dinner table or in public. "It's just not an important enough matter to talk over," he said. His assessment was much too modest. Money underlies the family's unique position in American life, although money does not fully explain it. The Kennedy wealth, like the family's political capital, is both large and arcane. TIME asked Richard J. Whalen, Kennedy's biographer (The Founding Father), to take a fresh look at the fortune on the founder's death. His report:
LONG before Joseph Kennedy's death, plans had been completed for the management of his family's holdings in future generations. Only a bare outline of these complex arrangements is likely to be made public through his will. The closely guarded secrets of the Kennedys' finances will remain in the hands of a small group of totally discreet professional managers operating from Suite 3021 in Manhattan's Pan Am Building. The fortune, used in the past with unrivaled success to achieve the power and prestige of the nation's highest offices, will henceforth be deployed according to a long-term strategy. The aim is to consolidate what the tragedy-scarred family possesses—and preserve a base for the rising generation of Kennedys.
The Kennedys are plausibly said to be unaware of exactly what they own and where it is: the income matters, not the capital. Informed estimates of the wealth cluster around $400 million, putting the Kennedys well down on the list of the nation's richest dynasties. The fortune is unusual in several respects. It is one of the few modern American fortunes of such size not derived principally from oil. Well over $100 million came from real estate speculation conducted by astute agents after Joe Kennedy had more or less retired from an active business role. Another substantial portion—perhaps $100 million if the managers have followed the rule of thumb applied in allocating other large fortunes—is in tax-exempt securities. The only corporate entity to which the fortune is intimately tied is the family itself. There is no highly visible family business.
The Golden Touch
In his heyday in Wall Street and Hollywood, Kennedy was an aggressive, though never reckless in-and-out operator. By about 1949, however, he had decided against further risk-taking. Jack was looking beyond his safe seat in Congress, and so was his father. Joe Kennedy told his advisers to keep his money away from "troubled places"—he had moved out of the politically troublesome liquor business in 1946—and he turned down deals that he formerly would have snapped up.