Monaco is a tiny nation of fewer than 40,000 residents, technically making it a city-state, but its small population might be better off than any other. A 2014 study by Spear's Magazine found that nearly one in three, or 29.21% of, residents boast net assets in excess of $1 million, excluding primary residences. Additionally, there are more billionaires in Monaco per capita than anywhere else in the world. Monaco is an attractive destination to the world's rich. There is no income tax in Monaco, and corporate taxes remain very low by world standards. The low crime rates and Mediterranean waterfront do not hurt, either.
1. Tatiana Casiraghi (Net Worth: $2.5 Billion)Monaco is one of the few places on Earth where the wealthiest resident is a woman. Tatiana Casiraghi, better known as Tatiana Santo Domingo, is heiress to a beer empire and the wife of Prince Andrea Casiraghi of Hanover, who also happens to be fourth in the line to the Monegasque throne.
Mrs. Casiraghi inherited much of her wealth from her grandfather Julio Mario Santo Domingo, whose Colombian brewery Bavaria was sold to SABMiller plc for billions in 2005. Tatiana received one-sixth of Julio Margo's fortune following his death in 2011.
Born in New York and raised in Switzerland by Colombian and Brazilian parents, Tatiana was studying in a boarding school just outside of Paris when she met Andrea Casiraghi. She is an active socialite and philanthropist, even launching the Muzungu Sisters business with Dana Alikhani in 2011. The company buys handmade garments from local artisans and resells them. She lives in Monaco with her son, Alexandre Andrea Stefano Casiraghi.
2. David Nahmad (Net Worth: $1.85 Billion) and Ezra Nahmad, (Net Worth: $1.5 Billion)David and Ezra Nahmad are two of the most successful art dealers in the world. They are self-made experts and enthusiasts, and they have always held their assets jointly. The only substantive difference between their respective fortunes comes from David's investment portfolio, which he actively manages and is valued at around $350 million as of 2015.
The Nahmad brothers claim an impressive art inventory full of blue-chip pieces from Monet, Rothko, Matisse, as well as more than 300 genuine Picassos. Their collection has been described as jointly modern and impressionist. The brothers were born in Beirut, Lebanon after their family moved away from Syria following a wave of anti-Semitic violence. The two fled to Monaco and New York after danger reached Lebanon.
David and Ezra were always enterprising, even at a young age. For example, the two regularly skipped high school classes to trade on the Milan Stock Exchange. They found their love of art at a Juan Gris exhibit in Rome, where they decided their appreciation of trade and art could be balanced into art dealings. As the director of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles once noted, the Nahmads were like "a major brokerage firm in the stock market," except in art.
3. Lily Safra (Net Worth: $1.3 Billion)As a legendary, and perhaps infamous, socialite, Lily Safra is a Brazilian philanthropist who moved to Monaco part time in the 1970s after marrying banking mogul Edmond Safra. Edmond passed away in 1999 during a highly publicized arson fire at the couple's Monaco penthouse. The Safras had homes in Monaco, New York, Geneva and the French Riviera. Edmond left part of his vast fortune to Lily.
Safra is highly celebrated for her devotion to charity, particularly through the Edmond J. Safra Philanthropic Foundation. She supports education, medicine, scientific research and humanitarian relief in more than three dozen countries. Mrs. Safra has also had four high-profile marriages, all to wealthy businessmen, which ended in two divorces, one suicide and one death by fire.