The Final Rockefellers: Who Controls The Remaining Billions?

Today, the remaining Rockefeller members are not POOR, however, considering the Rockefeller empire once commanded 1.5% of America's entire economy... today the family's collective $10 billion barely covers what Elon Musk loses on a bad Twitter day.

-------------------

Gain FREE access to secret full-length episodes on wealthy families "too scandalous for YouTube" by joining our newsletter: https://www.substack.com/@oldmoneyluxury

-------------------

TIMESTAMPS
0:00 Introduction
1:41 Chapter One: The Heirs at Twilight
5:17 Chapter Two: The First Division
8:55 Chapter Three: The Brothers and Sister Divide
12:39 Chapter Four: The Marriages That Built and Broke Billions
16:25 Chapter Five: The Last Rockefellers

-------------------

David Rockefeller Jr., age 83, presides as family patriarch from his 2,000-acre regenerative farm in Columbia County, chairing Rockefeller Capital Management which oversees $187 billion in client assets.

Ironically, the family needed Viking Global Investors to buy majority control of their own wealth management firm.

The real power player is Valerie Rockefeller Wayne, Senator Jay's daughter, who chairs the Rockefeller Brothers Fund and led complete fossil fuel divestment while awarding $62 million in grants last year.

Her brother Justin built The ImPact network of 90 wealthy families managing $50 billion, essentially becoming the world's most successful group therapist for billionaires with environmental guilt.

The mathematical truth is brutal: one patriarch became six children became 24 grandchildren became over 100 great-grandchildren, turning America's greatest fortune into really nice trust funds.

John D. Rockefeller Sr. died May 23, 1937, leaving an official estate of just $26.4 million after secretly transferring hundreds of millions to his son over two decades.

The federal government extracted $17 million in estate taxes—a 64% wealth massacre that would haunt every future Rockefeller's nightmares.

At his 1913 peak, Rockefeller Sr. controlled $900 million—approximately $340 billion today—representing 1.5% of America's entire economy in one man's grip.

Between 1916 and 1922, Junior received approximately $450 million from his father in transfers so complex that tax authorities spent years trying to understand them.

Junior established the legendary 1934 Family Trust, revolutionizing American wealth preservation with Standard Oil successor stocks that would multiply as Exxon, Mobil, and Chevron conquered global energy markets.

Nelson Rockefeller bulldozed his way to four terms as New York Governor while spending taxpayer billions on monuments like the $2 billion Empire State Plaza in Albany.

His death in 1979 came with maximum scandal—the 70-year-old Vice President suffered a heart attack in the townhouse of his 25-year-old assistant, not at home with his wife as the family initially claimed.

Laurance Rockefeller multiplied his inheritance through venture capital genius, turning a $288,000 Apple investment into over $120 million while his Venrock Associates funded Intel and dozens of tech companies.

David Sr. outlived them all, accumulating $3.3 billion while running Chase Manhattan Bank, giving away $2 billion during his lifetime and directing $700 million more from his estate.

By 2035, the Rockefeller family will complete its transformation from dynasty to diaspora, with 400 descendants clutching trust fund statements showing balances that would have been John D. Sr.'s hourly income.

Individual inheritances will drop below $25 million—enough for a house in Greenwich but not enough to buy a Greenwich politician.

The supreme irony arrives through climate activism: the anti-oil crusade will successfully destroy ExxonMobil's stock price, achieving financial suicide by murdering the very companies whose shares fill family portfolios.

John D. Rockefeller Sr.'s fortune completes its perfect arc: from one man controlling economies to hundreds unable to control their Instagram follower counts.