Charles de Vaulx Net Worth: Estimate, Sources, and Methods

Charles de Vaulx was a French-born, New York-based value investor who co-founded and ran International Value Advisers (IVA), one of the most respected global value investment firms of the 2000s and 2010s. His estimated net worth at its peak was in the range of $50 million to $150 million, built primarily through management fees, performance compensation, and equity ownership of IVA. He passed away on April 26, 2021, at age 59, shortly after IVA announced it would liquidate its funds and wind down operations. There is no court-verified or publicly disclosed estate figure, so any estimate carries moderate-to-low confidence and should be understood as a range, not a hard number.

Which Charles de Vaulx are we talking about?

The name 'Charles de Vaulx' appears in a few different places online. A LinkedIn profile under 'Charles de VAULX - OPTIFUSION BREZET' points to a contemporary professional in an unrelated field. If you landed here looking for that person, this is not the right article. The Charles de Vaulx who generates finance-world search traffic is Charles-Louis de Vaulx (full name: Charles Louis Jean Marie de Vaulx), born October 31, 1961, who became a prominent Wall Street figure managing billions of dollars in global equities. He is the one referenced in Reuters, the New York Times, InvestmentNews, Forbes, and SEC filings. That is who this article covers.

Net worth estimate: the honest answer

No probate filing, tax return, or estate disclosure has been made public as of July 2026. That means any net worth figure you read online for Charles de Vaulx, including on aggregator sites like TradersUnion or GuruFocus, is an estimate derived from career earnings modeling, not a verified number. With that caveat stated clearly, here is the most defensible range based on what is actually knowable from primary sources.

The wide range reflects genuine uncertainty, not lazy research. IVA's AUM collapse from roughly $20 billion to under $1 billion between its peak years and March 2021 would have dramatically reduced de Vaulx's management fee income and the market value of any ownership stake in the firm. How much personal wealth he preserved through that period in liquid assets, real estate, or other holdings is simply not documented in any public record. If you are looking for a single figure, the Charles John Vella net worth estimate will usually depend on how much of his wealth is attributed to firm equity and liquid holdings.

How these estimates are actually built

Net worth estimation for a private asset manager like Charles de Vaulx works differently than for a celebrity or public-company executive. Public “Charles Venn net worth” style figures are often compiled the same way, using institutional disclosures and modeled assumptions rather than a single verified statement. There are no stock option grants filed in a DEF 14A proxy, no public salary disclosures tied to a listed company he ran, and no court judgments that established a dollar figure. What researchers do instead is model backward from known inputs.

• Management fees: IVA charged roughly 1% to 1.25% annually on assets under management. At $20 billion AUM, that is $200 million to $250 million in gross firm revenue per year, split among expenses, staff, and principals.
• Co-founder equity: SEC Form ADV filings and an HKEX disclosure confirm that International Value Advisers was ultimately owned by Charles de Vaulx, making him the principal beneficiary of any firm-level equity value.
• SEC insider transaction data: GuruFocus aggregates SEC ownership reports for 'Vaulx Charles De,' providing a starting index for reported insider holdings in IVA-managed fund positions, though these reflect fund positions rather than personal wealth.
• Form 4 filings: De Vaulx signed SEC Form 4 documents as managing member of IVA, confirming ownership-level involvement. These filings track transactions in securities IVA held but do not directly disclose personal net worth.
• Court records: Rubenstein v. Int'l Value Advisers and Foundry Capital Sarl v. IVA provide some visibility into the firm's structure and legal exposure, but no damages awards or asset disclosures that would pin down personal wealth.

The honest methodology is: take the revenue capacity of the firm at peak AUM, apply a reasonable principal compensation fraction (often 20-40% of firm profits in founder-owned asset managers), subtract taxes and known business costs, and apply a time-weighted career average. That gives you the lifetime earnings floor. From there, assumptions about investment returns on personal capital, real estate, and lifestyle costs shape the final range. Every step involves assumptions, and you should treat any single number you see elsewhere with healthy skepticism.

Career timeline and financial milestones

Understanding how de Vaulx built his wealth requires tracing the arc of his career, because his net worth was almost entirely tied to the performance and size of the funds he managed.

1. Early career at First Eagle: De Vaulx worked under legendary value investor Jean-Marie Eveillard at First Eagle Investment Management (then part of the Société Générale orbit), gaining recognition as one of the sharpest global value stock-pickers of his generation. SEC proxy filings reference the 'Global Value Group' context connecting de Vaulx and Eveillard.
2. IVA launch (2008): De Vaulx co-founded International Value Advisers with Charles de Lardemelle. The firm registered with the SEC (CRD 146105) and launched the IVA Worldwide Fund and IVA International Fund. Launching your own RIA and fund complex at that level is a significant wealth-creation event through equity ownership.
3. Peak AUM years (2010-2015): IVA attracted a large following among institutional and retail investors drawn to its disciplined value approach. AUM reportedly grew toward $20 billion, which would have made the firm's annual revenue substantial and de Vaulx's equity stake in the business highly valuable.
4. Forbes profile (2013): A Forbes interview documented his public investment philosophy and prominence. This period likely represented peak earning power.
5. AUM erosion (2016-2020): Value investing broadly underperformed growth strategies through the late 2010s. IVA's fund performance lagged, triggering sustained client redemptions. AUM reportedly declined from near $20 billion to under $1 billion.
6. Fund liquidation announcement (March 10, 2021): IVA announced it would liquidate both funds and cease operations. The SEC EDGAR supplement confirms the liquidation plan effective date. This event would have effectively ended the firm's fee income.
7. Death (April 26, 2021): De Vaulx died in New York at age 59. Reuters, citing Morningstar, reported the death as an apparent suicide. He was found at IVA's offices.

What actually drove his wealth

Charles de Vaulx's wealth was concentrated in a fairly narrow set of sources, which is both the strength and the vulnerability of his financial profile.

Ownership stake in IVA

The HKEX public disclosure form (2019) states outright that International Value Advisers, LLC was ultimately owned by Charles de Vaulx. For a registered investment adviser managing tens of billions of dollars, firm equity is typically the single largest asset for a founder. The value of that stake was directly tied to AUM, which collapsed dramatically before his death.

Management fees and carried interest

IVA's two flagship mutual funds charged management fees in the range of 1% to 1.25% on AUM. At peak AUM of around $20 billion, that is annual gross revenue of $200 million or more to the firm. As co-founder and CIO, de Vaulx would have drawn a meaningful share of firm profits on top of any base compensation. The decline in AUM meant this income stream shrank dramatically in the final years.

Personal investment portfolio

A value investor of de Vaulx's caliber almost certainly had significant personal holdings in global equities, likely mirroring or overlapping with IVA's fund positions. SEC filings show IVA held stakes in companies like Adtalem Global Education (formerly DeVry Education Group), where an Insider Monkey snippet references a 17. SEC EDGAR filing index pages list “CHARLES DE LARDEMELLE / CHARLES DE VAULX” among filing-related documents, providing another traceable EDGAR presence for this person. 7% stake by IVA. Personal coinvestment alongside the funds would have been a reasonable wealth-building channel, though specifics are not disclosed in public filings.

Real estate and other assets

No specific property ownership records appear in the primary research. For a New York-based finance professional of his stature, real estate holdings (New York City apartment or broader property) are commonly part of the wealth picture, but there is no documentable evidence here.

Why the numbers you find online vary so much

If you have searched around before landing here, you have probably seen figures that range widely, sometimes from a few million to over $100 million. To understand Charles Veitch net worth estimates, you can apply a similar approach: look for verifiable income sources, equity stakes, and any publicly documented assets Charles de Vaulx. Here is why that happens and how to think about it.

• Snapshot timing matters enormously: An estimate based on 2014 would look very different from one based on 2021. IVA's AUM went from near $20 billion to under $1 billion over that window, and the firm equity and fee income followed.
• Aggregator sites use proprietary formulas: Sites like TradersUnion produce net worth profiles using reverse-engineered career earnings models. These can be reasonable starting points but are not sourced from disclosed financial records.
• No estate filing is publicly available: Unlike public company executives whose compensation appears in proxy statements, de Vaulx's personal finances were never subject to mandatory public disclosure at the individual level.
• Firm ownership vs. personal net worth confusion: Some estimates conflate the assets under management of IVA with the personal wealth of de Vaulx. Managing $20 billion does not mean you own $20 billion. The management fee revenue, not the AUM itself, is the relevant figure for wealth estimation.
• Name disambiguation errors: As noted earlier, there is at least one other person named Charles de Vaulx who is not a finance figure. Any data pulled under that name in error would produce wrong numbers.

How to verify this yourself today

If you want to go deeper than this article, here is exactly where to look and what to do with what you find.

1. SEC EDGAR (sec.gov/cgi-bin/browse-edgar): Search for 'International Value Advisers' or 'Charles de Vaulx' in the full-text search. You will find Form ADV filings (which describe the firm's ownership structure and AUM history), Form 4 filings signed by de Vaulx as managing member, and fund prospectuses naming him as CIO and portfolio manager. These are primary documents.
2. SEC AdviserInfo (adviserinfo.sec.gov): Look up International Value Advisers, LLC under CRD number 146105. The Form ADV on file lists individuals, ownership codes, and acquisition dates. This is how you confirm firm structure directly from regulator data.
3. GuruFocus insider page: Search 'Vaulx Charles De' on GuruFocus. The site aggregates SEC insider transaction data and provides a summarized holdings history. Treat it as a useful index, then click through to the underlying SEC filings to verify.
4. HKEX disclosure search (hkexnews.hk): The 2019 HKEX filing confirms de Vaulx's ownership of IVA in the context of a Hong Kong-listed company disclosure. This is a cross-jurisdiction confirmation of his beneficial ownership status.
5. Court records via PACER or NY Courts Reporter: Rubenstein v. Int'l Value Advisers and Foundry Capital Sarl v. IVA are both searchable. Court documents won't give you a net worth number, but they do document the firm's structure, his role as managing member, and any legal liabilities that might affect wealth.
6. Legacy.com New York Times obituary listings: The NYT death notice confirms the co-founder and CIO role and the date of death. Cross-referencing this against SEC filings helps establish the career timeline with confidence.
7. InvestmentNews and Reuters archives: Both outlets covered the fund liquidation and his death. These news records give you the AUM collapse narrative in reported form, which you can use to contextualize the wealth erosion in the final years.

One practical tip: when you find a net worth figure on any aggregator site, ask whether it cites a primary source. If it does not trace back to an SEC filing, a court document, a probate record, or direct financial disclosure, it is a modeled estimate. That is fine for rough orientation, but not for precise conclusions. For Charles de Vaulx specifically, the honest answer is that no precise figure exists in the public record, and the most defensible estimate puts lifetime wealth in the tens of millions to low-to-mid hundreds of millions, with the range widened by the dramatic late-career AUM collapse at IVA.

For context within the broader universe of finance-world figures named Charles, de Vaulx's wealth profile is quite different from the entertainer and sports-world Charles profiles you might find on this site. His wealth was almost entirely institutional in nature, built through fee economics and firm equity rather than endorsements, salaries, or media deals. That makes verification harder for casual researchers but also means the paper trail is richer in SEC and regulatory databases than in entertainment trade press.