ICYMI: How the Stroh family blew $9 billion

Jul 17, 2014 at 2:04 pm

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The July 21st issue of Forbes features this interesting read on the Detroit-rooted Stroh family, and how the heirs to the beer empire blew everything, including their trust funds and collectibles. An excerpt:

The Stroh family owned it all, a fortune that FORBES then calculated was worth at least $700 million. Just by matching the S&P 500, the family would currently be worth about $9 billion.

Yet today the Strohs, as a family business or even a collective financial entity, have essentially ceased to exist. The company has been sold for parts. The trust funds have doled out their last pennies to shareholders. The last remaining family entity owns a half-empty office building in Detroit. While there was enough cash flowing for enough years that the fifth generation Strohs still seem pretty comfortable, the family looks destined to go shirtsleeves-to-shirtsleeves in six.

Check out "How To Blow $9 Billion: The Fallen Stroh Family" here.