If there’s one great truth about wealth, it is its often transitory nature: As hard as it is to earn, it can be easy to lose. Thus, there are often individuals who climb onto our list of Wealthiest Angelenos only to fall off. And this year is no exception.
Consider Roland Arnall, the owner of sub-prime lender Ameriquest Mortgage Co. who parlayed his great wealth into a U.S. ambassadorship to the Netherlands. He was No. 20 on last year’s list with an estimated net worth of $1.87 billion. This year he’s not among the wealthiest as Ameriquest has fallen on hard times amid the implosion of the subprime lending sector, slashing his net worth by two thirds.
There are others not ranked this year, including pioneer automotive publisher Robert Petersen, who single-handedly built the nation’s largest special-interest publishing company and held the No. 50 spot in 2006. He died at age 80 in March with estimated net worth of $760 million. His assets will likely be distributed among heirs.
Another notable absence: Jeffrey Skoll, No. 4 last year with a net worth of $4.8 billion; he moved from Los Angeles to the Silicon Valley.
And then there are those individuals who might qualify, if only more were known about their wealth. Hot shot producer Jerry Bruckheimer falls into that category. He has countless television credits to his name and has the potential to reap hundreds of millions of dollars in residuals from his successful “CSI” franchises. He has also produced huge box office hits such as the billion dollar “Pirates of the Caribbean” film franchise. But the details of those agreements are not public.
The other reality of Hollywood is that producers and studio owners are the ones who cut the checks thus few actors appear on our list. The only actor on last year’s list, Mel Gibson, with an estimated net worth of $850 million, was removed from the list as the Business Journal adjusted downward his take for producing “The Passion of the Christ.” Jack Nicholson is the only other actor possibly wealthy enough to appear, but reports that he earns 20 percent of all Batman revenues as part of his original contract for playing The Joker in 1989 are unconfirmed. There is also no publicly disclosed appraisal of his art collection.
Two billionaires that have significant holdings locally don’t make the list because they do not live here full-time. Philip Anschutz, developer of the $2.5 billion L.A. Live project downtown, prefers Colorado. Larry Ellison, chief executive of Redwood City-based Oracle Corp., lives in Northern California but may one day retire to one of his thirteen homes in Malibu.
The stock market boom of the last couple of years also puts financial advisors under consideration for placement on the list. Mark Stern, who serves as president of TCW Group Inc., the company founded by billionaire Robert Addison Day Jr., No. 32 this year, also could make the list depending on his stake in the company, which manages more than $150 billion in assets. Jonathan Lovelace Jr. manages Los Angeles-based Capital Group Co., the company started by his father that now manages more than $1 trillion in assets. Lovelace and his family own less than a 10 percent stake in the company. The exact value of that stake is unknown.
