Walter is the chief executive and founder of Guggenheim Partners, an investment and advisory firm with $345 billion in assets under administration. He's also the lead owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers baseball team, and an investor in the Los Angeles Lakers basketball team and the Premier League's Chelsea Football Club.
The majority of Walter's fortune is tied to Guggenheim Partners, the investment advisory he founded. Guggenheim Partners managed about $345 billion in assets according to its website in October 2025.
Walter's stake is not divulged in the company's 2024 form ADV, meaning he owns less than 25%. Employees own 55% of the firm, according to Guggenheim's website in October 2024, and Sammons Enterprises own a roughly 33% stake according to an October 2017 Bloomberg News report. Walter is credited with 20% given his status as a founder and chief executive officer of the firm. It's valued using the average price-to-assets under management ratio of five comparable publicly-traded firms.
Walter controls Group 1001 with an economic stake of 19%, according to filings with the California Department of Insurance, which owns insurers including Delaware Life and Clear Spring. The total adjusted capital of nine Group 1001 insurers totaled $5.1 billion at the end of 2024. They are valued here at that figure.
Walter controls about 6 million shares of Carvana through TWG Global Holdings according to a June 2025 schedule 13G. Walter's owns 21% of TWG according to the insurance filings, and that proportion of shares is credited to him.
Walter is the lead owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers baseball team with a stake of 27%, according to Dan Webb, a lawyer for Walter, in October 2024. He also owns 20% of the Los Angeles Lakers and 12.7% of Chelsea Football Club, according to Webb. He's credited with one-sixth of the Los Angeles Sparks women's basketball team. All of the teams are valued using valuations by sports media firm Sportico.
In April 2025 TWG announced it was taking a 5% stake in Abu Dhabi investment manager Mubadala Capital in exchange for a $2.5 billion investment. Its valued at cost.
His investments in motor racing groups and in the Professional Women's Hockey League are not included because their value could not be ascertained.
Walter was raised in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, where his father worked at a concrete block manufacturing plant.
After high school he studied accounting at Creighton University, then graduated from Northwestern University with a law degree. After a stint at a law firm and First Chicago Capital Markets, he founded Liberty Hampshire, an investment firm, in 1996.
Four years later, he and other partners including the great-grandson of Meyer Guggenheim created Guggenheim Partners, which Liberty Hampshire folded into.
In 2012, Walter led a group that bought the Los Angeles Dodgers baseball team for $2.1 billion, which was then the most ever paid for a sports team. He later bought stakes in the Los Angeles Lakers basketball team and Chelsea Football Club, as well as other sports investments.
Walter has a range of charitable enterprises which focus on social equity and conservation.