The Wealth Advisor
February 11th, 2020
Disney is one of the biggest media companies in the world, with an estimated net worth of nearly $130 billion.
The Walt Disney Company has come a long way since it was founded by brothers Walt and Roy O. Disney nearly a century ago. What began as a cartoon studio is now a media powerhouse, complete with amusement parks and properties.
While it’s not known just how much the family is worth, GOBankingRates evaluated the company’s net worth to be $130 billion based on its revenue and profits from the past three years.
Walt Disney’s daughter, Sharon, adopted one child, Victoria, with her first husband, Robert Brown. She then had twins, Brad and Michelle, with her second husband, Bill Lund.
Sharon died from breast cancer in 1993. Victoria’s share of the family fortune was added to Brad’s and Michelle’s, after she died in 2002 from health complications.
Sharon’s twins later became embroiled in a multiple-year feud over their $400 million trust fund.
The inheritance was supposed to be distributed in annual payments and lump sums at five-year intervals. However, the trustees dispersed the payments to Michelle, but withheld Brad’s. Michelle and the trustees argued that Brad wasn’t capable of managing his share because of a “chronic cognitive disability” and that Bill, their father, was taking advantage of this to gain money, according to NBC News.
Bill argued that the trustees were manipulating his daughter Michelle. According to Gardner, he was previously a trustee but resigned after an allegation that he used trust money to gain more than $3 million in kickbacks from a real-estate deal. He reportedly agreed to an annual settlement of $500,000.
While Michelle reportedly suffered from drug addiction and had a brain aneurysm that “left her with uncertain mental abilities,” the trustees agreed with her about her brother. The court ended up ruling in favor of the trustees, continuing to withhold Brad’s payments while paying out Michelle’s.
