Herbert Sandler was a famous American lawyer, banker, and philanthropist. At the time of his death in 2019, he had a net worth of $800 million.
Key facts:
Herbert Sandler and his wife Marion transformed Golden West Financial, a tiny California bank, into one of the largest mortgage lenders in the US.
They sold Golden West Financial to Wachovia in 2006 for $24 billion, resulting in a $2.4 billion pre-tax windfall for the Sandlers.
The Sandlers donated $1.3 billion of their windfall to their charitable foundation, the Sandler Foundation.
The Sandlers' donation to the Sandler Foundation helped launch ProPublica, an investigative news organization.
Golden West Financial had one of the lowest loan losses in the industry and was included in Fortune magazine as one of the most admired companies in the US for ten years.
