PEOPLE

CONTENTS:

• Virginia Business: Virginia 100
• Hawaii's Wealthiest Landowners
• Baltimore Business Journal: High-End Living

VIRGINIA BUSINESS: VIRGINIA 100

Virginia Business magazine has released its list of the Virginia 100 annually since the late 1980s. These 100 are the wealthiest people in the commonwealth, each with a net worth of $60 million and over. The Internet Prospector interviewed Executive Editor Peter Galuszka for some insight into how Virginia Business finds, ranks and rates its 100.

The Virginia Business researchers and we development researchers share many of the same sources. The magazine keeps files on the people they have listed over the years. They use public sources such as proxies, wills and divorce records. For prospects in private companies, they compare similarly-sized companies to get an estimate of the person's holdings.

There is one technique that Virginia Business can employ and development researchers usually can't: They start their research by writing to each of the 100 on the current list, asking for updates. They interview their prospects whenever possible.

They end up with an estimation of the prospect's net worth, figured from all of the above sources and taking into account his or her liabilities as much as possible.

One very nifty, and honest, feature of this listing is the notation of an A, B or C confidence rating. When they're very confident of their listing, an A shows that what they came up with in their research matches what the prospect has told them. When you see a C, it means that their information was collected from public sources without the prospect's cooperation.

Take a look at the newest Virginia 100 list at:

http://www.virginiabusiness.com/

HAWAII'S WEALTHIEST LANDOWNERS

We all know how beautiful Hawaii is, but who owns it? Last fall Hawaii Business did some research to find out. Using county tax assessor databases, they waded through the complications and limitations that many of us know from doing our own real estate research. The list was finalized in September 2001.

The researchers explain in detail how they came up with their figures, and the results are detailed as well. Tales of family histories, trusts, wills, secretive foundations, Japanese billionaires and others, including AOL-Time Warner's Stephen Case, are unraveled for a fascinating insight into these islands and the companies and people who are involved in their development. Click on LandLocked and the other links on the right side of the page for the details.

http://www.hawaiibusiness.cc/hb112001/default.cfm?articleid=9

BALTIMORE BUSINESS JOURNAL: HIGH-END LIVING

Next, we'll visit the wealthiest zip code in the Baltimore area: Gibson Island, where a beautiful 1000-acre island harbors the area's most elite inhabitants. Homes here may sell for $2-3 million. Read the Baltimore Business Journal's article about the folks who live in Gibson Island and other top zip codes.

http://baltimore.bizjournals.com/baltimore/stories/2002/04/01/focus1.html

Pam Patton