The Richest Did Get Richer, Just Not as Rich as U.S. Equities

Betting on U.S. stocks beats top billionaires' one-year gains
Photographer: Jonathan Fickies/Bloomberg
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The U.S. stock market was a better bet in the past 12 months than a wager on the country's 20 richest people. That group has added $34 billion to their collective net worth, a gain of almost 5 percent. The 20 billionaires have a combined $772 billion, up from $738 billion in May 2014.

Meanwhile, investing in a composite index of the Dow Jones Industrial Average, NASDAQ Index and Standard & Poor's 500 Index would have yielded more than 14 percent.