Minimum net worth: $198.65 million
Kerry has been a mainstay on Roll Call's list of the wealthiest in Congress for more than 15 years, due in large part to the assets of his wife, Teresa Heinz Kerry, the widow of Sen. H. John Heinz III (R) of Pennsylvania of the Heinz ketchup fortune.
Though Kerry's reported minimum net worth of $198.65 million is more than $100 million short of what he'd need to nab the top spot, the actual value of his fortune is likely far more than what is reported each year.
The Senate's financial disclosure form has separate categories for assets held jointly by a couple and those held only by a lawmaker's spouse. While a sizable joint asset has to be reported within a standard range — $5 million to $25 million or $25 million to $50 million, for example — that of a spouse is only recorded as having a minimum value in excess of $1 million.
Kerry listed more than 100 assets that were held by his wife and exceeded $1 million.
Though Kerry reports dozens of liabilities, most are associated with various Heinz family trusts. Only two are personal, one of which is a line of credit of at least $50,000 secured by the Kerrys' personal residence in Providence, R.I.
