King Charles inherited $500 million in assets after the Queen's death, but that's just a fraction of his wealth. Here's how the monarchy makes millions each year.

The public won't know exactly what King Charles inherited from Queen Elizabeth II until at least 90 years after her death. Like the wills of other royals before her, the Queen's will has been sealed and locked in a safe for nine decades, Reuters reported in September.

A Forbes report on the monarchy's wealth estimated Charles' inheritance from the Queen at a whopping $500 million worth of personal assets.

But that's not all.

As monarch, Charles also takes over institutions that Forbes estimated manage $42 billion worth of assets. These include a collection of real-estate holdings like Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle, as well as the Duchy of Lancaster, which in March 2022 was valued at £652.8 million and is owned in a trust by the monarch.

What's more, Charles didn't have to pay inheritance tax on his gains because of a 1993 agreement with the British government that exempts taxation on transfers of property and personal assets from one sovereign to another. However, The Guardian reported in September that Charles had volunteered to pay income tax as his mother did.

Here's a look at the finances of the British royal family, including Charles, his sons, and his siblings, as well as how the Queen's death is thought to have changed their individual wealth.

Each year the monarch receives funds from what's known as the Sovereign Grant.

The royal family's website says the grant, which was established in Parliament in 2011 and came into effect in 2012, is given to the monarch by the UK's national treasury.

The website says that in return for funds from the grant, the royal family relinquishes its profits from the Crown Estate — a large collection of land and properties, managed by an independent organization — to the treasury to benefit the British economy. The website adds that the Crown Estate's portfolio is worth over £7.3 billion, or about $9.2 billion, and includes "beef farms in the north of Scotland" and "Portland stone mining in Dorset."

Though the Sovereign Grant and the Crown Estate are separate entities, the amount of money given to the reigning monarch each year through the grant is determined by the Crown Estate's profits. Each year the monarch is given funds equivalent to 25% of the Crown Estate's profits two years prior.

A Crown Estate report published in June 2022 said its net profit reached £312.7 million over the past year. A report from the UK's treasury published in March said the amount given to the monarch in 2023 was close to £86.3 million, or about $108 million.

The British government's website says funds from the Sovereign Grant support the king's "official business" including royal events and travel for official engagements. Funds from the grant are also used to pay royal staff and cover expenses for the monarch's official household, as well as maintain royal palaces.

Forbes estimated in September that Charles' inherited assets included a $9.5 billion real-estate portfolio.

But Charles doesn't personally own these properties. They're owned by each monarch "in right of the Crown" for the duration of their reign and held in trust for all future royals, meaning they cannot actually be sold.

Forbes estimated that Buckingham Palace, the Crown's most famous place of residence, was valued at $4.9 billion.

Clarence House, also in London, is thought to be valued at $72 million. The Times reported in October that Charles and Camilla — who are said to have resided at the property since 2003 — would continue to live there while Buckingham Palace undergoes extensive renovations set to be completed in 2027.

However, Charles does privately own other properties.

Charles owns Balmoral Castle in Scotland, which Forbes valued at $118 million, and the Sandringham Estate in Norfolk, England, valued at $73 million. He could sell them if he wanted to.

The monarch isn't required to pay inheritance tax on the estates because of the 1993 agreement with the British government that exempts taxation on transfers of property and personal assets from one sovereign to another.

The Duchy of Lancaster is a portfolio of land and other assets that's been in the royal family for generations, dating back to 1265, when Henry III gifted land to his son, Edmund I. The duchy has been the personal estate of the reigning monarch since 1399, according to its 2022 report.

The Duchy of Lancaster is not funded by British taxpayers and makes up much of what's known as the Privy Purse, which the royal family's website defines as the private finances and estates of the sovereign.

In March 2022, the duchy was valued at £652.8 million, according to its financial report. The monarch is not entitled to the entire value of the Duchy of Lancaster, but they have access to the income generated by the duchy, the duchy's website says.

The amount of money given to the monarch each year is considerable — in 2022, the Duchy of Lancaster reported £24 million in operating profit that was allotted to the monarch for their private use.

While the amount goes to the monarch, some of this money has been spent on expenses for certain working royals who don't get public funding, Town & Country reported.

While Queen Elizabeth's will has been sealed, Charles is thought to have inherited some $500 million worth of personal assets from his mother, Forbes reported.

Forbes' report said that Charles inherited Balmoral Castle and the Sandringham Estate from the Queen, who owned the properties outright, and that he likely was given her private art and jewelry collections, rare stamps, and any personal investments she made.

Like the Duchy of Lancaster, the Duchy of Cornwall is a vast collection of properties privately owned by the heir to the throne. The duchy's website says the estate was established in 1337 by Edward III. Today it includes the Oval cricket ground in London; holiday cottages in Cornwall, Wales, and the Isles of Scilly; and other properties.

The Duchy of Cornwall was passed down to Prince William upon the Queen's death. Its website says the income generated by the estate is used to pay for "the public, private and charitable activities of The Duke and his immediate family."

Forbes reported last year that the Duchy of Cornwall was valued at $1.2 billion. The report said Charles made about $27 million from the duchy that year before passing it on to William. The duchy's website suggests that before his ascension to the throne, Charles primarily used the income to fund his charitable work and support his family.

The Wall Street Journal reported in 2020 that Charles paid William, Prince Harry, and their respective families a combined £5 million in 2019.

Charles founded Duchy Organic — then known as Duchy Originals — in 1990 as Prince of Wales to market produce from his farm, Duchy Home Farm, near his country home, Highgrove House in Tetbury, Gloucestershire, CNN reported.

However, in 2020, a Clarence House spokesperson told the BBC that Charles would not renew the 20-year lease on Duchy Home Farm, and instead "continue to farm organically at Sandringham."

Still, Duchy Organic has grown into the largest own-label, organic food-and-drink brand in the UK, according to Waitrose, a major grocery-store chain that has had a partnership with the brand since 2009.

Profits from Duchy Organic products go to The Prince of Wales's Charitable Fund, which says it's received over $42.6 million since the brand's partnership with Waitrose began. The fund contributes grant money to a variety of community projects, according to its website.

The king's paintings — many of which are of royal properties and landscapes around the world — have been displayed in multiple exhibitions and at charity events. 

Between 1997 and 2006, Charles made an estimated $2.5 million from the sales of prints of his watercolors out of the shop at his Gloucestershire country home, Highgrove House, The Telegraph reported in 2016.

The profits have all gone to The Prince of Wales's Charitable Foundation, according to The Telegraph.

Following Queen Elizabeth's death, Prince William became the Duke of Cornwall and head of the Duchy of Cornwall.

This follows a tradition set by a 1337 charter that said the eldest surviving son of the monarch and heir to the throne would be made the Duke of Cornwall and head of the duchy, as The Guardian reported.

The Duchy of Cornwall's website says William was "actively involved with the estate for a number of years" before becoming the leader of the estate. 

Still, William's powers as Duke of Cornwall aren't limitless. According to the duchy's website, the UK's treasury has "a role to ensure that actions taken by any Duke when managing the Duchy cannot compromise the long-term value of the estate." As such, the treasury has to "approve all property transactions with a value of £500,000 or more," and the British Parliament reviews the duchy's accounts each year.

In 2006, William served in the Household Cavalry in the Blues and Royals regiment of the British military.

He later became a helicopter pilot in the Royal Air Force Search and Rescue Force, for which he earned a yearly salary of between $68,000 and $74,000, according to a Forbes report from 2011, before he retired from military service in 2013. 

In 2015, William became an air-ambulance pilot for the East Anglian Air Ambulance. He donated his $62,000 salary to charity, according to an AFP report cited by CNBC at the time.

According to a 2014 report from The Telegraph, William received about $12.5 million, when he turned 30 in 2012.

The Telegraph also reported that William and his brother, Harry, were each gifted a number of valuable assets from their mother's estate, including jewelry pieces that have since been worn by Kate Middleton and Meghan Markle, and Princess Diana's wedding gown.

Kate's parents, Carole and Michael Middleton, are self-made millionaires and entrepreneurs.

In 2013, their company, Party Pieces, which provides party supplies for private events, was valued at £30 million, according to Hello! magazine. Carole and Michael own a little over half of the business, according to the Daily Express. 

It's unknown if the Princess of Wales has any stake in the company. Kensington Palace and Party Pieces did not respond to Insider's requests for comment.

Kate shares three homes with her husband and children. The Queen gifted Anmer Hall — a 19th-century country home that's part of the Sandringham Estate in Norfolk — to William and Kate for their wedding, according to Vogue.

However, William and Kate's principal residence is Adelaide Cottage at Windsor Castle, where they moved at the end of the summer in 2022.

They also have a 20-room, four-story apartment in Kensington Palace — where the family primarily lived before moving to Adelaide Cottage — and which they maintain as their official residence when in London, according to Town & Country.

On his 30th birthday, in 2014, Prince Harry also inherited $12.5 million from his late mother Princess Diana's estate after her death, The Telegraph reported at the time.

At the time of her death in 1997, Princess Diana was reportedly worth $21.45 million. The remaining inheritance that did not go to William and Harry was dispersed between her butler, Paul Burrell, and her 17 godchildren, as The New York Times reported in 1998.

In 2021, Harry told Oprah Winfrey during a CBS interview that he and Meghan Markle would have been unable to move from the UK to California — which they chose to do after deciding to step back from their roles as senior royals — without that inheritance. 

"I've got what my mum left me and without that, we wouldn't have been able to do this," Harry told Oprah at the time. "She saw it coming, and I certainly felt her presence throughout this whole process."

Before stepping back from royal life, 95% of Harry and Meghan's annual income came from Charles, while the other 5% came from funds from the Sovereign Grant, according to the BBC. 

In 2021, a Clarence House spokesperson told Sky News that Charles gave Harry and Meghan a "substantial sum" to ease their transition from working royals to becoming financially independent after announcing their plans to step back from their royal duties in 2020.

The figure has never been publicly released, though, and according to the BBC, accounts from the Duchy of Cornwall showed that Harry and Meghan were given £4.5 million between April and June 2020. 

"That funding [then] ceased," a Clarence House spokesman told the BBC.

Some royal watchers believed that this contradicted statements that Harry made during his Oprah interview, in which he claimed his family "literally cut me off financially" after he and Meghan made the decision to step back from royal life. 

A spokesperson for Harry and Meghan told Insider in 2021 that believing there was a contradiction between Harry and Charles' stories was "inaccurate."

"The Duke's comments during the Oprah interview were in reference to the first quarter of the fiscal reporting period in the UK, which starts annually in April," the spokesperson said.

In February 2021, Forbes estimated Harry and Meghan's net worth to be around $10 million. There's no officially recognized figure for what they are worth in 2023.

Harry and Meghan's representatives did not respond to Insider's request for comment on their updated net worth.

The amount Harry and Meghan made from their deal with Netflix has not been made public. However, The New York Times reported in September 2020 that representatives for the couple were looking for around $100 million during discussions with the streaming giant.

"Our focus will be on creating content that informs but also gives hope," the couple said in a statement to The New York Times at the time. "As new parents, making inspirational family programming is also important to us."

Among the programming, they released their documentary series, "Harry & Meghan," on December 8, 2022.

The series shared intimate details of their life together in California and featured never-before-seen photographs and videos of the couple. The Sussexes also spoke candidly in the series about their relationship with the royal family and the struggles they faced in the UK.

The couple did not produce any content for the platform in 2021, which led Spotify producers to step in, according to Forbes. Meghan has since released her own Spotify podcast, "Archetypes."

"Archetypes is the podcast where we explore and subvert the labels that try to hold women back," the podcast's description reads on Spotify.

Celebrities like Paris Hilton, Issa Rae, Serena Williams, and Mindy Kaling have appeared on the podcast.

Harry and Meghan raised $13 million and donated $3 million to humanitarian efforts during its first year of operation, according to The Telegraph.

The $3 million went toward procuring 12.66 million COVID-19 vaccines across the world, 50,000 meals served through their partnership with World Central Kitchen, the building of a play space in Uvalde, Texas, and other charitable projects, according to the foundation's 2020-2022 impact report.

Archewell did not provide comment to Insider on which organizations or charitable causes will benefit from the other $10 million. However, according to the Telegraph, the foundation has millions in reserve that it's expected to donate in the future.

Prince Harry also pledged to donate the proceeds of his memoir "Spare" to charities, according to Penguin Random House.

Harry is rumored to have earned a $20 million advance for the book, The New York Times reported. The memoir became the fastest-selling nonfiction book published by Penguin Random House, according to The New York Times, with 1.4 million copies in preorder and first-day sales in the US, Britain, and Canada — surpassing Barack Obama's 2020 memoir "A Promised Land."

The pair settled in the private and exclusive neighborhood of Montecito in July 2020, buying their 14,500-square-foot home for $14.65 million, according to The Los Angeles Times.

They paid a $5 million down payment, leaving them with an almost $10 million mortgage, Forbes reported.

"The Duke and Duchess of Sussex moved into their family home in July of this year," a spokesperson for the couple told Insider in August 2020. "They have settled into the quiet privacy of their community since their arrival and hope that this will be respected for their neighbors, as well as for them as a family."

Prince Andrew was stripped of his working-royal status after he was accused of sexual assault.

Virginia Roberts Giuffre first accused Prince Andrew, now 63, of sexually abusing her in a 2015 defamation case against Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell. Giuffre alleged that Epstein and Maxwell sex-trafficked her starting in 2000, and introduced her to Andrew.

Giuffre alleged in the lawsuit that Epstein forced her to have sex with Prince Andrew in his New York City mansion, in London, and on Epstein's private island in the US Virgin Islands when she was 17. However, the allegation against Andrew was removed from the case by a judge who deemed it "immaterial and impertinent to the central claim" in the case at the time.

In August 2019, the court documents from the 2015 case were unsealed and Giuffre's allegations against Andrew were made public.

According to The Guardian, Prince Andrew earned an estimated £12.9 million from his duties between 2002 and 2019, when he averaged 436 appointments a year. Those official payments ended in 2019 following the release of the court documents that made public the allegations brought against him by Giuffre and his disastrous interview with the BBC about his friendship with Jeffrey Epstein.

Buckingham Palace denied any wrongdoing by Andrew in a 2019 statement.

"It is emphatically denied that The Duke of York had any form of sexual contact or relationship with Virginia Roberts," the palace's statement read. "Any claim to the contrary is false and without foundation."

In August 2021, two years after Epstein's death, Giuffre filed a lawsuit against Andrew, accusing the prince of sexually assaulting her at Epstein's mansion when she was 17. 

In January 2022, Buckingham Palace announced it was stripping Andrew of his military titles, royal patronages, and HRH status in the fallout of the allegations.

In February 2022, The Telegraph reported that Andrew would pay Giuffre around £12 million, using funds from the Queen's private estate, to settle the lawsuit. Andrew has repeatedly denied the allegations, insisting that he did not remember ever meeting Giuffre, according to The Telegraph.

In July 2022, the royal expert Neil Sean claimed in a Fox News article that Andrew's relationship with Charles was "virtually nonexistent."

While Andrew no longer receives a cut of the Sovereign Grant, that's not to say he hasn't received funding from the late Queen's private estate, and it's unknown whether he will receive funding from the royal family as part of Charles' or William's private estates going forward.

However, Andrew was offered the keys to Frogmore Cottage, Harry and Meghan's previous UK residence before they were asked to vacate in March 2023, Yahoo's royal executive editor, Omid Scobie, reported at the time.

According to The Guardian, Anne, 72, carried out 11,088 engagements between 2002 to 2022, averaging 528 per year — more than any other living royal.

Since she started receiving payments in the 1970s for her engagements, The Guardian estimates she has been paid more than $20 million.

The late Queen gifted her daughter the Gatcombe Park estate in Gloucestershire in 1976, Hello! magazine reported. The Queen paid between £500,000 and £750,000 for the property at the time, Cosmopolitan reported; in 2022, Forbes estimated that the property was worth $29 million.

Anne still lives in the 10-bedroom mansion on its grounds today. Her daughter, Zara, her husband, Mike Tindall, and their three children also reside at Gatcombe Park.

In addition, Anne has a London residence at St. James' Palace, which is owned by the Crown. According to Forbes, the entire palace is estimated to be worth of $700 million.

Anne also has a jewelry collection worth $6.2 million, The Express reported in 2022.

Prince Edward, 59, has earned more than $8.1 million, along with his wife, Sophie, from royal engagements. He's taken on an average of 351 appointments a year since 1982, according to estimates from The Guardian.

Edward and Sophie live near Windsor in Bagshot Park, and leased the mansion from the Crown Estate for 50 years beginning in 1998, The Telegraph reported. Edward later extended the lease to 150 years for what would be about $6.2 million today, according to The Telegraph.

The agreement allows him to rent out the stables on the property and, according to The Guardian, in 2022, he received $161,000 in rent from a Canadian pharmaceutical company for the use of the stables as their London office.

This story is part of "Charles in Charge," our package of stories all about King Charles' coronation. Read the rest here.