Here's Who Inherited McDonald's Founder Ray Kroc's Estate After He Died

Before Ray Kroc bought out the McDonald brothers, he wasn't making as much profit as he initially thought he would. Then, he met financial wizard Harry Sonneborn, who showed him how he can increase profits via real estate. As noted by Entrepreneur, the idea was to establish a company that leased or purchased lands where McDonald's franchises would be built, and that's what Kroc did. He earned more money from the rent the franchisees paid in addition to a percentage of sales from the restaurant.

Kroc was a perfectionist and a workaholic, and those traits helped expand McDonald's. However, his personal relationships suffered, according to FranchiseWire. Kroc and his first wife divorced in 1961, and his second marriage in 1963 ended in divorce as well five years later. In 1969, he married his third wife, Joan Mansfield Smith, to whom he remained married until his death. Kroc died in 1984 at the age of 81. According to a report by The New York Times, the McDonald's mogul died of a heart ailment at the Scripps Memorial Hospital in San Diego.

He served as the senior chairman of McDonald's and also owned the Major League Baseball team, the San Diego Padres, which he purchased in 1974. At the time of his death, his net worth was reported to be $600 million, which is equivalent to $1.7 billion in today's money. Today, McDonald's has more than 38,000 restaurants in over 100 countries (via World Population Review).