Costs, Income and Fortune of the Dutch Royal Family

Friso was a genius, and knowing how to make money was part of that in his case. Though I'm sure Mabel would trade it all to have him instead. Just because the DRF doesn't live conspicuously (outside of W-A) doesn't mean they're not as rich as Croesus — that's usually how very rich people keep their money.

On February 27, 1968, the Thesauriër der Koningin (the Queen's Treasurer) informed a government commission that Juliana's assets amounted to 'only' eighty million guilders. There is a calculater which calculates the amound in todays "purchasing power": https://iisg.amsterdam/en/research/projects/hpw/calculate.php

A private fortune of 80 million guilders from the year 1968 has a "purchasing power" 195 million Euro (225 million US Dollar) in the year 2020.

According the Thesauriër the vast majority of Queen Juliana's fortune was loss-making or unprofitable. The securities portfolio generated income, in those years about 1.5 million guilders per year (3,6 million Euro in today's money).

Immovable property included Soestdijk Palace, the mansion at the Lange Voorhout in The Hague, a number of properties near Soestdijk and in The Hague (including the mansion Noordeinde 66), the estate De Horsten and a number of properties in the Veluwe, but because of high functional costs Juliana had been digging in her private assets for some 2,5 million guilders annually, for several years (6 millon Euro in today's money).


For an example, in the period 1961-1966 Queen Juliana had to use more than ten million guilders (24,4 million Euro in today's money) from her private fortune because she (on her own initiative) raised the salaries of her staff to the level of civil servants. As a result, the Queen had to transfer 1,4 million guilders (3,4 million Euro in today's money) from her private purse, for years.

On July 23, 1966, the Cabinet introduced a Bill to increase the annual allowance to the Queen from 2,5 to 5.2 million guilders (12,7 million Euro in today's money). According to the Cabinet, the Queen actually needed six million guilders, but the ministers thought she could pay an average amount of 800.000 guilders from the income she generated from the Crown Domains. The proposed amount included 450.000 guilders for maintenance and personnel of Soestdijk Palace that was privately owned by Queen Juliana.

The proposals were received very critically in the Dutch media. The media pointed to foreign reports that Juliana is said to be "one of the richest women in the world".

At the end of 1970, Soestdijk Palace and the associated domain were sold by Queen Juliana to the State of the Netherlands for an amount of exactly 4.2 million guilders (10,2 million Euro in today's money). The reason was that the annual maintenance costs would put too much pressure on Queen Juliana's equities. She managed to ensure that she and her husband were allowed to continue living in the palace until their death.

The formerly Stadhouderly Court in Leeuwarden was sold by Juliana in 1971 to the municipality of Leeuwarden for an amount of 285,000 guilders (1,5 million Euro in today's money).


In 1983 then Princess Juliana sold the mansion at Noordeinde 66 in The Hague for 750,000 guilders (1,5 million Euro in today's money) to her grandson Willem-Alexander.

In the 1980s, the State of the Netherlands paid Juliana about twenty million guilders (46 million Euro in today's worth) for the acquisition of privately owned museal contents of three palaces (Het Loo, Noordeinde and Huis ten Bosch).


At the beginning of 1990, she sold the mansion at the Lange Voorhout for 4.5 million guilders (8,2 million Euro in today's worth) to the municipality of The Hague.

Duc_et_Pair said:

The annual Quote 500 (the 500 wealthiest Dutch persons) estimates the fortune of the family Orange-Nassau (Beatrix, Willem-Alexander) on 1.100.000.000,-- Euro (appr. 1,275,818,500.-- US Dollar).

The same magazine estimates the fortune of HRH Princess Mabel of Orange-Nassau on 880.000.000,-- Euro (appr 1,020,000,000.-- US Dollar).

https://blauwbloed.eo.nl/artikel/2021/11/prinses-mabel-stijgt-wederom-in-quote-500

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Princess Beatrix has invested heavily in Royal Dutch Shell shares.

Kronprinz said:

Princess Beatrix has invested heavily in Royal Dutch Shell shares.

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This has never been confirmed and Royal Dutch Shell are not the most profitable shares (anymore).


By the way: the King has no shares in Royal Dutch Shell (or in Royal Philips Electronics, or in KLM, etc.). The website of the Royal House specifically states that the King has no share in any company with the predicate "royal".

https://www.koninklijkhuis.nl/onderwerpen/onderscheidingen/predicaat-koninklijk

For what it's worth: in one of his -notorious- interviews with the Volkskrant Prince Bernhard said about the Shell shares: 'the amount of Shell shares in our portfolio is zero comma zero, zero, zero, something. Three zeros after the comma. That is how little we own of Shell, sadly'.

After an intervention by Bernhard Forbes lowered the estimated wealth of the RF from 2,5 billion dollars to 250 million. Bernhard: 'they estimated Beatrix' personal wealth at 50 million euros. She doesn't have that much either but let's leave it at that'. He even estimated that she owned less than 1 million euros (hard to believe though).

Of course the stories he told in these interviews were to no small extend lies so I am not sure if we can take Bernhard's word for it.

Let us agree that the King is a wealthy man, that Queen Máxima has a platinum card without limits, that hopefully financial whizzkid Friso has also advised his mother and brothers. And that is it. Any guess about one billion Euro is nice but also Quote gives no base for it.

King Willem-Alexander will receive a grant of 4.5 million euros until 2028 for the maintenance of the part of the Kroondomein Het Loo nature reserve that is always open to the public, it was announced this week.
https://www.nu.nl/koningshuis/62065...e-hij-krijgt-voor-de-natuur-rond-het-loo.html

google translation of part
"The king will receive a subsidy of 4.5 million euros for the period 2022-2027, which, due to new rules, may not be spent on the part that is only open for nine months. According to the rules, a nature reserve that receives a subsidy must be accessible to the public almost all year round (at least 51 weeks). The king hunts with relatives and other acquaintances with a hunting diploma during the autumn in this area.

The subsidy amount has been reduced from 4.7 million to 4.5 million euros, but it has increased in relative terms. This is because the area in which the subsidy can be spent has become smaller due to the new rules. The fact that it is a relatively high amount for a smaller part is because the compensation for nature management has increased. As of 2022, this is a maximum of 84 percent of the average costs, previously this was 75 percent. Inflation has also been taken into account."

According to recent investigative journalism the Dutch state and royal family profited indirectly from so called 'comfort women' (about 70.000 in total) that were put to work in brothels for Japanese military in Indonesia during World War II. The money that was earned by this shady business was deposited in a bank whose reserves were frozen at the end of the war. This money ended up with the 'Nederlandsche Handel-Maatschappij' (Dutch Trade Company); which had the Dutch state and Dutch royal family as main shareholders. The dividend was paid without withholding tax.

The RVD (Royal Communication Service) states they cannot verify what happened with the money -received by the royal shareholders- resulting from the earnings of these brothels.

Read this story in Dutch by NOS.

How do they know that the 4000 founder shares of King Willem I were still with his great-, great- granddaughter Juliana?

I thought an investigation in the 1960's revealed that the mythic Orange-Nassau fortune was mythic indeed?

I do not exclude that Princess Beatrix still has shares in ABN AMRO Bank, the successor of the NHM, but even simple me over here has a mortgage from ABN AMRO, am I now complicit to the bank's past in colonial exploitation and Japanese or German confisquated capital?

Unfortunately, the original article is behind a pay wall but if you are truly interested you could take a free account for a month to see whether they explained it in their article. Typically Follow the Money seems to do thorough research.

Given that FtM could establish no-taxes were withhold, they must have been able to pinpoint they exact transaction. Note that the RVD does not deny they received the money , they only state that they cannot verify what happened with it. If the family were no longer shareholders it would have been very easy to deny.

And having a mortgage is different from being the major shareholder receiving tax-free dividend (most likely at the time the money became available and it was decided that a major portion of it would go to the shareholders: the state and the family). Whether they were aware what the reason for the most likely a larger dividend was is a different question. So, I would not assume bad intent but there is no need denying the questionable source of the money they received either.

While the king and queen were in Sweden the prime minister had to 'defend' his budget for 'General Affairs' in Parliament which included the yearly debate on whether the king, queen and princess Beatrix truly needed the raise (2 million). The PM stated it was a 'cheap' criticism.

Somebody said:

While the king and queen were in Sweden the prime minister had to 'defend' his budget for 'General Affairs' in Parliament which included the yearly debate on whether the king, queen and princess Beatrix truly needed the raise (2 million). The PM stated it was a 'cheap' criticism.

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And the PM was totally correct in that remark!!

Somebody said:

While the king and queen were in Sweden the prime minister had to 'defend' his budget for 'General Affairs' in Parliament which included the yearly debate on whether the king, queen and princess Beatrix truly needed the raise (2 million). The PM stated it was a 'cheap' criticism.

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What does the PM mean by "the Royal Family is a vulnerable and delicate property?" I don't know if that is the right translation (it is from Google Translate, so it may be off).

Mbruno said:

What does the PM mean by "the Royal Family is a vulnerable and delicate property?" I don't know if that is the right translation (it is from Google Translate, so it may be off).

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"Het koningshuis is een kwetsbaar en teer bezit"

Apart from talking about the 'Royal House' instead of the Royal Family, the rest i would probably translate as such too:
teer = delicate, fragile
kwetsbaar = easy to hurt, vulnerable
bezit = possession, property

he brushes away all the critique from various political sides with that...don't know why he chose those words, other than maybe meaning 'you shouldn't complain about them, because if you complain you easily damage them" but that last part is just my opinion

The royal family is estimated to be the 11th richest family of the Netherlands (estimated at 1.2 billion), the Brenninkmeijer family (of whom princess Carolina's husband Albert is a member) is considered the richest family (estimated at 24 billion).

All according the Quote magazine.

The Dutch Royal Family has an estimated fortune of 1.4 billion euros. This represents an increase of 100 million euros compared to the previous year.