Wealth and Finances of the Spanish Royal Family


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Alfonso XIII left an account with money in Switzerland to help the Royal Family, money that was recovered after the death of the Count of Barcelona.

Count of Barcelona recovered two palaces of vacations of the family that did not belong to the National Patrimony and sold them.

Juan Carlos' money is a subject about which there is a lot of information and legends ... but nobody really knows.

So although they are not rich like other monarchies, they have money.
 
I don’t think they’re as relatively poor as they’re made out to be but also not as massively wealthy as some reports have stated. I forget what ridiculously high number The New York Times, of all papers, quoted as Juan Carlos’ net worth.

The truth is probably somewhere in the middle. It would be interesting if Juan Carlos’s finances were subject to the same scrutiny as his son in law’s were. I think, especially in the early and middle part of his reign, the Spanish government, industry, society, etc may have been inclined to look the other way if Juan Carlos accumulated wealth by means other than his salary. And if one has sufficiently powerful friends there are ways that the money can be discreetly tucked away.

Then there are the gifts that never get reported because they’re considered private. I read an interview with one of the long term royal reporters a few months ago who talked about this exact issue and made reference to an extremely expensive piece of jewelry that was given to Letizia by, I believe, one of the Middle Eastern monarchs. She was talking about it as a counterpoint to the “austerity” picture Felipe is trying to project. Of course we’ll never see any of these expensive gifts but they do add to a family’s wealth. I would imagine Sofia also received plenty of gifts like these and the majority of them will go to her daughters, to then be discreetly sold.
 
The issue of money and the alleged business of Juan Carlos can be very complicated, and has always moved in speculation ... it is difficult to say that it is true and that it is a lie.

I think that that journalist talks about some earrings that Queen Letizia has worn, and that it is speculated could be Arab gifts. We really can not know if they are new gifts and if those gifts have been treated as official or private until they publish the gift lists, the one from last year is not yet published.

The gift lists are a rule of King Felipe, nobody knows how it worked before, and probably Letizia has received several jewels over the years, but we will never know if they are considered private or not. Queen Sofía has a very extensive collection of jewelry given by the Arabs.

Queen Letizia has recovered many Queen Sofia's jewels last year, jewels that in some cases had been in the drawers for decades, and probably there will also be jewels that were gifts and Sofia did not use because they were not to her liking.
 
Kitty1224 said:
Money. Could have made investments, ect... To think they have nothing is not right.
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Nobody says they have nothing. The original statement that was made is that they are not as wealthy as some other royal families - and the evidence that was presented was that they were deposed, dispossessed and exiled for quite some time which typically is quite detrimental to the finances of a royal family as they tend to keep to their previous lifestyle to some extend (hence why a marriage to wealthy spouse is appreciated). By now they surely have recovered somewhat but it would be illogical to think that they accumulated the same amount of wealth in about 40 years as the other royal families did in 200 years or more.
 
Somebody said:
Nobody says they have nothing. The original statement that was made is that they are not as wealthy as some other royal families - and the evidence that was presented was that they were deposed, dispossessed and exiled for quite some time which typically is quite detrimental to the finances of a royal family as they tend to keep to their previous lifestyle to some extend (hence why a marriage to wealthy spouse is appreciated). By now they surely have recovered somewhat but it would be illogical to think that they accumulated the same amount of wealth in about 40 years as the other royal families did in 200 years or more.
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Well thats true, but anything is possible :)
 
https://www.abc.es/espana/casa-real...tal-jefatura-estado-202101291246_noticia.html

https://translate.google.com/transl...&vli=noticia.foto&ref=https://l.facebook.com/

The King has decided to freeze his allocation and the allocations received by the Queens Doña Letizia and Doña Sofía , without applying the 0.9 percent increase that officials will receive in 2021. This has been confirmed by the Palace of La Zarzuela, who released the detailed budgets of casareal for 2021. In addition, the amount of the allowance that Don Juan Carlos received (194,232 euros per year), and that Don Felipe withdrew from him last March, will be used for other items, including the digital renewal of the Head of State.

In this way, the King will continue to receive 253,850 euros, Queen Letizia will receive 139,610 and Doña Sofía 114,240 euros. The total amount allocated to the Royal Family, which was 679,818 euros in 2018, has been reduced to 507,700 euros in 2021. As is known, neither the Princess of Asturias nor the Infanta Sofía receive any allocation from the budget. Casareal will receive in 2021 the same budget as in 2018, 2019 and 2020 ( 7,887,150 euros ).
 
Hopefully Don Juan Carlos allowance will go towards maintaining a more efficient & up to date casareal.es which has been quite poor past few years.
 
Rather odd to strip Juan Carlos from his allowance. Just like anybody else he is entitled to a 'pension', which in practice this is.

I assume the palace claiming Juan-Carlos pension as their own must have been done with the approval of JC. Let's hope the king has at least some money saved up for a rainy day.
 
Marengo said:
Rather odd to strip Juan Carlos from his allowance. Just like anybody else he is entitled to a 'pension', which in practice this is.

I assume the palace claiming Juan-Carlos pension as their own must have been done with the approval of JC. Let's hope the king has at least some money saved up for a rainy day.
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To strip him off his allowance is a non-brainer for image reasons. You cannot have a former King, exiling himself in luxury and at the courtesy of the ruling Sheikh family while being accused of taking millions of bribe money, tax fraud etc, take money from the Spanish State that soon will have to deal with countless citizens being out of work and suffering from all sorts of corona related repercussions.
 
Its not as if he relies on his pension to live. Clearly he has been living off other money for years so why not take away the official money and the issues that come around it.
 
tommy100 said:
Its not as if he relies on his pension to live. Clearly he has been living off other money for years so why not take away the official money and the issues that come around it.[/QUO

Is it better if he keeps the official pension than is totally dependent on foreign "freinds"...
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tommy100 said:
Its not as if he relies on his pension to live. Clearly he has been living off other money for years so why not take away the official money and the issues that come around it.
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Yes indeed the less said about Don Juan Carlos's personal finances the better.
 
Duke of Marmalade said:
To strip him off his allowance is a non-brainer for image reasons. You cannot have a former King, exiling himself in luxury and at the courtesy of the ruling Sheikh family while being accused of taking millions of bribe money, tax fraud etc, take money from the Spanish State that soon will have to deal with countless citizens being out of work and suffering from all sorts of corona related repercussions.
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I agree, it would look bad but that does not make it unfair. To me the new arrangement seems like some sort of extortion. Like every other Spaniard the former King should be entitled to a pension. And AFAIK the Spanish state / pension funds does not confisquate the pensions of other retired Spaniards. Neither does it tell other retired Spaniards how to spend their money or where they need to live. If anything it shows that the King was right in understanding he needed to arrange his own finances. Of course a pity that he went about it the way that he did.

Denville said:
Is it better if he keeps the official pension than is totally dependent on foreign "friends"...
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True.
 
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The weird part to me is that apparently the king decided that he would take his father's allowance instead of the state keeping it; or am I missing something/misunderstanding?
 
Denville said:
tommy100 said:
Its not as if he relies on his pension to live. Clearly he has been living off other money for years so why not take away the official money and the issues that come around it.[/QUO

Is it better if he keeps the official pension than is totally dependent on foreign "freinds"...
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In my country the present King, the future King and the former King receive an allowance exactly because the State finds it "undesirable" that they are "in a dependent relation to third parties."

As these three are exactly the sole persons barred in having a free career choice or to engage into commercial activities or enterprises, they are "compensated" quite lavishly, befitting "a proper execution of the royal dignity". I assume this way of thinking is more or less the same in all monarchies.

Between 1936 and 1975 the Spanish royal family had no throne, was exiled for decades and had no source of income. It is no wonder that the reflex is to accumulate wealth as much as one can because monarchy can be over tomorrow, as Juan Carlos' very own wife and brother-in-law experienced...

Taking away the pension is actually pushing the former King into dependance on thirds and that is never a good idea.
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Will restoring the pension make him independent from other sources? No.

He's exiled himself from Spain so as not to degrade his son's position and the monarchy further. That should include not being on the payroll.
 
The king made the correct decision I doubt too many Spaniards care if its unfair.
 
Somebody said:
The weird part to me is that apparently the king decided that he would take his father's allowance instead of the state keeping it; or am I missing something/misunderstanding?
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Officially there is no such thing as "his father's allowance". Casa Real gets a lump sum in the state budget and the King freely decides how to spend it. The money is not earmarked a priori for different individual members of the Royal Family as in other countries.
 
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Duc_et_Pair said:
Denville said:
In my country the present King, the future King and the former King receive an allowance exactly because the State finds it "undesirable" that they are "in a dependent relation to third parties."

As these three are exactly the sole persons barred in having a free career choice or to engage into commercial activities or enterprises, they are "compensated" quite lavishly, befitting "a proper execution of the royal dignity". I assume this way of thinking is more or less the same in all monarchies.

Between 1936 and 1975 the Spanish royal family had no throne, was exiled for decades and had no source of income. It is no wonder that the reflex is to accumulate wealth as much as one can because monarchy can be over tomorrow, as Juan Carlos' very own wife and brother-in-law experienced...

Taking away the pension is actually pushing the former King into dependance on thirds and that is never a good idea.
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"Dependent on friends"?

Juan Carlos is far from being poor. Whatever happened to $100 million that he received from Saudi's? He never returned that. Let alone however manu millions he collected that the public doesn't know about.

The right decision was made.
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King Juan Carlos is living in the laps of luxury and is well able to afford his lifestyle and I doubt the removal of his pension will have an effect on his lavish lifestyle.
 
The Royal Family saved almost 600,000 euros in 2020

This budget breakdown also includes what concerns the salaries received by the Royal Family, amounts that the monarch himself decided to freeze in January of this year. During 2020, Felipe VI earned 253,843 euros in twelve monthly payments, that is, just over 20,000 euros per month.

For her part, from the rest of the Royal Household, Queen Letizia received 139,605 euros, while Doña Sofía received 114,231 euros. In addition, Princess Leonor and Infanta Sofía did not receive any compensation from the State.

Other senior positions within the institution, such as the head of the Casa del Rey, Jaime Alfonsín, or the general secretary, Domingo Martínez Palomo, received a salary of 147,204 euros and 144,485, respectively.

https://www.ondacero.es/noticias/es...cuentas_2021052760afd6f0fcfa810001dff86a.html

https://www.casareal.es/ES/Transparencia/Paginas/subhome.aspx

It also includes an audiovisual memorial file on all the activities carried out last year

 
King Felipe VI has revealed by personal decision the amount of his assets, which include bank accounts, works of art and jewelry, but no property or farm.

Since his Proclamation before the Cortes Generales, His Majesty the King began the path of modernizing the Crown to make it worthy of the respect and trust of citizens under the principles of exemplary, transparency, rectitude and integrity in its behavior.

In that solemn act of June 19, 2014, His Majesty the King affirmed in her words that... "Today, more than ever, citizens rightly demand that moral and ethical principles inspire -and exemplary presiding- our public life. And the King, at the head of the State, has to be not only a reference but also a servant of that fair and legitimate demand of all citizens.”

This demand for public regeneration is very present in the millions of people who face their daily work with effort and honesty, with vitality and generosity; people who, on a daily basis, fulfill their obligations, show their civic values ​​and thus build and define the future of our country.

This citizen demand inspires and is present in the messages and in the measures that His Majesty the King has been adopting to fulfill her commitment to renew the Monarchy for a new time.

For all these reasons, His Majesty the King, guided by that same spirit of service and civic commitment, today adds to her constitutional responsibilities his personal decision to make her assets public, which amounts to 2,573,392.80 euros.
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https://www.casareal.es/ES/AreaPrensa/Paginas/area_prensa_comunicados_interior.aspx?data=118

https://www.casareal.es/sitios/listasaux/Documents/Comunicados/20220425_nota_adjunta_comunicado.pdf

https://www.casareal.es/sitios/listasaux/Documents/Comunicados/20220425_comunicado.pdf

Felipe VI has announced that he has 2,573,392 million euros, divided into 2,267,942.80 million in deposits in checking or savings accounts, and 305,450€ in art objects, antiques and personal jewelry, but no real estate or farm.
In the Zarzuela Palace statement they also explain that the King does not have real estate or assets abroad and that, for the moment, it is not planned to make Queen Letizia's assets public. Not in vain, it is known that the couple does not have private properties in Spain.
https://www.vanitatis.elconfidencia...zia-reyes-tierras-fincas-propiedades_2733339/
 
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I wonder what brought this about?
 
2.5 million Euros is... a very comfortable amount for most people, but not what you'd expect a king to have. And a good amount of that is not liquid.

It seems sort of sad, actually, that he doesn't even have a personal house anywhere. I wonder if that will change.
 
Prinsara said:
2.5 million Euros is... a very comfortable amount for most people, but not what you'd expect a king to have. And a good amount of that is not liquid.

It seems sort of sad, actually, that he doesn't even have a personal house anywhere. I wonder if that will change.
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It is true. All royal families seem to have private homes. But the Spanish Royal Family seems not to have.
 
I've always thought it prudent for RFs to have some property of their own... just in case
 
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