LITTLE ROCK — Four family members of Wal-Mart Stores Inc. founder Sam Walton remained in the top 10 of Forbes magazine’s annual list of the 400 richest Americans, and in most cases their fortunes increased from a year ago.
Two other Walton family members and Arkansas’ Warren Stephens and Johnelle Hunt also made the list.
Bill Gates, chairman of Microsoft Corp., tops the wealth list with a net worth of $54 billion.
The number of people on the list whose wealth declined this year is 85, compared with 314 in 2009. Wealth increased for 217 members on this year’s list, which was released late Wednesday.
The total worth of the 400 people on the list rose by 8 percent to $1.37 trillion, still below the $1.57 trillion of two years ago before the full brunt of the economic downturn struck.
“They’ve recovered, but we’re still so far off from 2008,” Luisa Kroll, global wealth editor for Forbes, said in a telephone interview.
The cutoff to make the Forbes 400 list is back up to $1 billion after falling to $950 million last year.
Investor Warren Buffet of Omaha, Neb., who runs Berkshire Hathaway, is No. 2 on the list at $45 billion. Third, at $27 billion, is Larry Ellison of Woodside, Calif., co-founder and chief executive of Oracle Corp., a computer software and hardware firm.
Christy Walton of Jackson, Wyo., remained at No. 4 on the list with a worth estimated at $24 billion, up from $21.5 billion a year ago. She is the widow of John T. Walton, Sam Walton’s son who died in 2005 when the experimental aircraft he was flying crashed shortly after taking off.
Christy Walton’s ranking makes her the richest woman on the list.
Jim Walton of Bentonville, Sam’s youngest son and the chairman and chief executive officer of Arvest Bank, slipped two spots to No. 7, though his net worth rose to $20.1 billion from $19.6 billion, according to Forbes’ calculations. He also serves on Wal-Mart’s board of directors.
Alice Walton of Fort Worth, who is Sam Walton’s only daughter and the founder of the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art that’s under construction in Bentonville, is down two notches to No. 8. Her wealth rose to $20 billion, from $19.3 billion.
S. Robson Walton of Bentonville, Sam’s oldest son and Wal-Mart’s board chairman, fell to No. 9 from No. 7, though his wealth rose to $19.7 billion from $19 billion.
Ann Walton Kroenke of Columbia, Mo., daughter of Wal-Mart co-founder Bud Walton, Sam’s brother, ranked 98th with $3.2 billion, up from110th place and $2.9 billion last year.
Nancy Walton Laurie of Henderson, Nev., another of Bud Walton’s daughters, dropped to No. 136 from 118 a year ago, though her wealth stayed level at $2.6 billion.
Warren Stephens, chief executive officer of Little Rock financial services firm Stephens Inc., slipped to No. 144 from 97 a year ago, with a listed net worth of $2.5 billion, down from $3 billion.
Johnelle Hunt of Fayetteville, an entrepreneur and widow of the founder of J.B. Hunt Transport Services Inc. of Lowell, was among the 24 people listed at No. 332 with a net worth of $1.2 billion, up from $1.1 billion last year where she ranked 347th.
Interviewed Thursday by CNBC, Buffett said the economy remains in a recession, by his definition, because most people and businesses still aren’t doing as well as they were before the financial crisis.
His assessment of the economy contradicts the view of experts who announced this week that the recession officially ended in June 2009.The official definition of recession requires consecutive quarters of declines in gross domestic product.
Buffett said he uses a common-sense standard to evaluate the economy.
Brothers Charles and David Koch, who run the Wichita-Kan.-based energy and manufacturing firm Koch Industries Inc., tied for fifth on the Forbes list, each with an estimated net worth of $21.5 billion.
Michael Bloomberg, mayor of New York, rounds out the top 10 at $18 billion. He is majority owner of the financial-news and information-services media company Bloomberg LP.
Facebook Inc. CEO Mark Zuckerberg, 26, who is tied for No. 35 on the list, saw his wealth jump 245 percent to $6.9 billion, the largest percentage increase of anyone on the list.
“Very few are at an all time high, with the exception of how phenomenally well Facebook is doing,” said Kroll, who is based in New York.
Talk-show host and television executive Oprah Winfrey i s tied with four others at No. 130 with $2.7 billion. Mark Cuban, the52-year-old Dallas Mavericks owner facing insider-trading allegations by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, tied with Stephens and seven others for No. 144 with $2.5 billion.
California has the most people on the list, with 83, followed by New York, with 64. Texas has 45 members and Florida has 26.
Sixteen new people joined the list this year, including Dustin Moskovitz, a cofounder of Facebook who left the social-networking site in 2008. He has a net worth of $1.4 billion, tying him for No. 290. Moskovitz, 26 years old and eight days younger than Zuckerberg, is the youngest person on the list.
The oldest is New York philanthropist David Rockefeller Sr., 95, who is tied for No. 153 with $2.4 billion.
Information for this article was contributed by Margaret Collins and Alexis Leondis of Bloomberg News; by Steve Painter of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, and by The Associated Press.
Front Section, Pages 1 on 09/24/2010