Romney and Ryan Have Much More Sophisticated Investment Strategies

Barring some sort of an unexpected last minute change, the 2012 US Presidential election is going to pit Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan vs Barack Obama and Joe Biden.

I thought that it might be interesting to look at the finances of the four men. Who is the richest amongst the four? Who uses the most sophisticated investment strategies?

As you probably guessed, Mitt Romney has the most money of the four men, and it's not even close. Let's look at their net worth ranges:

Mitt Romney - $80,873,131 - $257,852,991 (based on 2010 filing)
Paul Ryan - $1,605,026 - $7,399,999

Barack Obama - $1,566,014 - $7,764,999
Joe Biden, -$1,260,972 - $190,993

Asset values are given in ranges, so we don't know the exact net worths of Romney, Ryan, Obama and Biden. In addition, the four men aren't required to list their primary residences as assets. For instance, Joe Biden may actually have a negative net worth based on his financial disclosures, but this document doesn't include the value of his primary residence, nor does it include the future value of any of his pensions.

What we can see, based on the four financial disclosures, is that Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan utilize significantly more sophisticated investment strategies when it comes to managing their money.

Barack Obama, for instance, is as boring as it comes when it comes to managing his money. The Obama family has a significant portion of their wealth invested in US Treasury Notes, US Treasury Bills and a JP Morgan Chase checking account. They also own some Vanguard 500 Index Funds.

The Biden family lists a rental property (Wilmington, DE) as their biggest asset. In addition, they own Certificates of Deposit, a number of life insurance policies and some mutual funds. Finally, a number of savings and checking accounts are listed on their personal financial disclosure.

Mitt Romney, on the other hand, lists all sorts of different financial instruments in his filing. Romney has money invested in private-equity real estate funds, structured notes that are linked to the performance of the DJIA and various hedge funds, to name a few.

Paul Ryan, as mentioned, has a total net worth of between $1.6 million and $7.4 million. However, a substantial portion of the Ryan's net worth comes from the Prudence Little Living Trust (valued at between $1,000,001 - $5,000,000), which comes via Ryan's wife Janna following the death of her mother.

On top of that, Paul Ryan has interests in a couple of partnerships, including the Ryan-Hutter Investment Partnership and Ryan Limited Partnership, as well as interests in gravel rights, timber rights and mineral rights.

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Source: Mitt Romney Net Worth

Paul Ryan Net Worth

Barack Obama Net Worth

Joe Biden Net Worth

Filed under: General Knowledge