Power Failure: The Rise and Fall of an American Icon

by William D. Cohan

$5,500 a month on country club memberships. He paid $14,000 a month in life insurance premiums and $2,500 a month in property insurance. He spent nearly $9,000 a month on food and beverages but only around $1,900 a month on clothing. His personal charitable giving was only around $600 per month, but his affidavit explained that the John F. Welch Jr. Foundation donated $3.1 million in 2001. Things got more interesting when Jack shared the value of his assets. His homes in Fairfield, Connecticut, and in Nantucket were valued at $10 million each. His home in Lost Tree, Florida (just north of Palm Beach), was valued at $3.5 million—Suzy Welch sold it for $21 million in April 2020—and his home in Southport, still being built, was valued at $6.75 million. (It sold in 2007 for $10.75 million.) In sum, Jack valued his real estate at $30.6 million, including two parcels of land in Palm Beach and the one in the Berkshires he had bought when he left Pittsfield for Fairfield. As of September 2002, Jack had nearly $250,000 in cash. He had nearly $250 million invested in bond and equity funds, as well as $14.2 million invested in limited partnerships—essentially private-equity funds. The net present value of Jack’s GE options was $73 million. The net present value of his after-tax deferred compensation from GE was about $30 million and of his “executive salary” another $22 million. A grantor trust he set up in 2001 was worth, net of taxes, $36.5 million.