Source of Wealth: inheritance
A distant cousin of Theodore, FDR came from an old money New York family. His father was an investor; his mother was the heir to a China trade fortune. FDR was an only child raised in grand style in Hyde Park, N.Y., Manhattan and Campobello Island off the coast of Canada. Though a mediocre student, he attended Harvard and Columbia Law School. He quit law school before graduation, but passed the New York bar exam and joined a Wall Street law firm. The work bored him. FDR was elected to the New York State Senate at age 28. His wife Eleanor was T.R.'s niece. Because his mother lived until 1941, FDR never controlled the family fortune. But he was certainly able to tap it. Roosevelt died at age 63 in 1945, leaving a personal estate valued at just north of $1 million.
