Why Paul McCartney Isn't On The FORBES Billionaires List

Monday, April 15, 2013

But a billionaire he’s not. Consequently, his name isn’t listed alongside Carlos Slim, Bill Gates and Warren Buffett in FORBES’s annual Billionaires issue, released last month. So why have a number of respectable publications labeled him as such in recent days?

The answer stems from a story on McCartney’s inclusion on the U.K.’s latest Sunday Times Rich List, pegging his fortune at £680 million, or about $1.05 billion. The reported sum, however, isn’t just his–it’s the amount the former Beatle is estimated to share with his wife, Nancy Shevell, whose family owns a trucking company in the U.S. that clocks over $300 million per year in revenue.

Shevell, who’s listed as a VP of the family-owned firm and sits on the board of the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority, may be quite rich. But neither she nor any member of her family has appeared on any of FORBES’s wealth lists.