Octogenarians rule with big share of top US wealth

New York

SIXTY? That's young - for a rich person. Six of the 25 richest Americans are over 80, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Carl Icahn and Charles Koch, for example, are 81. Earlier this month, Sheldon Adelson turned 84 and George Soros hit 87. Warren Buffett, the fourth richest person in the world, with a net worth of US$77 billion, celebrates his 87th birthday this week.

New data from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) show just how old the top millionaires and billionaires in the US are. While people over 80 make up only 3.7 per cent of the population, the IRS estimated that they control a larger share of the nation's top fortunes than people under 50.