It was always Joe Kennedy's emphatic wish that money never be discussed,
at the family dinner table or in public. “It's just not an important
enough matter to talk over,” he said. His assessment was much too
modest. Money underlies the family's unique position in American life,
although money does not fully explain it. The Kennedy wealth, like the
family's political capital, is both large and arcane. TIME asked
Richard J. Whalen, Kennedy's biographer , to take
a fresh look at the fortune on the founder's death. His report:LONG before Joseph Kennedy's death, plans had been completed for the
management of his family's holdings in future generations. Only a bare
outline of these complex arrangements is likely to be made public
through his will. The closely guarded secrets of the Kennedys' finances
will remain in the hands of a small group of totally discreet
professional managers operating from Suite 3021 in Manhattan's Pan Am
Building. The fortune, used in the past with unrivaled success to
achieve the power and prestige of the nation's highest offices, will
henceforth be deployed according to a long-term strategy. The aim is to
consolidate what the tragedy-scarred family possesses—and preserve a
base for the rising generation of Kennedys.The Kennedys are plausibly said to be unaware of exactly what they own
and where it is: the income matters, not the capital. Informed
estimates of the wealth cluster around $400 million, putting the
Kennedys well down on the list of the nation's richest dynasties. The
fortune is unusual in several respects. It is one of the few modern
American fortunes of such size not derived principally from oil. Well
over $100 million came from real estate speculation conducted by astute
agents after Joe Kennedy had more or less retired from an active
business role. Another substantial portion—perhaps $100 million if the
managers have followed the rule of thumb applied in allocating other
large fortunes—is in tax-exempt securities. The only corporate entity
to which the fortune is intimately tied is the family itself. There is
no highly visible family business.The Golden TouchIn his heyday in Wall Street and
Hollywood, Kennedy was an aggressive, though never reckless in-and-out
operator. By about 1949, however, he had decided against further
risk-taking. Jack was looking beyond his safe seat in Congress, and so
was his father. Joe Kennedy told his advisers to keep his money away
from “troubled places”—he had moved out of the politically troublesome
liquor business in 1946—and he turned down deals that he formerly
would have snapped up.
