The Fords Shop For Advice

What would you do if $581 million of your family's fortune had been vaporized in just 5 years? That's a question that Bill Ford and the other

What would you do if $581 million of your family＇s fortune had been vaporized in just 5 years？ That＇s a question that Bill Ford and the other 46 fourth-and-fifth-generation members of the Ford auto dynasty are grappling with these days. The family＇s class B stock was valued at $1.14 billion when Bill took over as CEO of Ford Motor in 2001. Today the shares are worth less than half that. To make matters worse, the clan＇s once-lucrative dividend stream has dried up： Payouts that amounted to more than $28 million annually as recently as 2005 have been slashed to zero this year.