Most Americans who have estates and families want to make certain that there is plenty left for their loved ones after they die. Millions have life insurance policies ranging from a few thousand dollars on up into the hundreds of thousands of dollars. Some have life insurance policies into the millions. But now a new Guinness Book of World Records has been set — a $210 million life insurance policy.

While catching up on some weekend reading, we discovered that the Guinness World Records News Service last week confirmed that a mystery billionaire took out a $210 million life insurance policy.

No name was offered up as to who the new record belongs to, other than that this policy is on the life of a well-known U.S. billionaire and features a combined death benefit to be paid upon the death of the single insured. The person is said to reside in the Silicon Valley area of California and is actively known in the technology space.

What stands out (outside of the massive amount) is that this was more than twice the amount of the previous record, a $100 million policy sold in 1990 “on the life of a U.S. entertainment industry figure.”

This new record-breaking insurance policy was sold by Dovi Frances, listed as managing partner of SG LLC in Santa Barbara, Calif. Another oddity here is that this one policy was negotiated with over two dozen insurance companies.

Such a sum of $210 million may seem ludicrous on the surface to almost anyone. Still, with the way inheritance laws and taxation are now and how they can change in the future, such a sum may be required to keep the estate in order just to pay a tax bill without a fire sale of key assets.

The Silicon Valley Business Journal listed 56 billionaires living in the Bay Area and Silicone Valley from the Forbes’ 2014 billionaires list as follows:

• Larry Ellison, $48 billion, Woodside, Calif.
• Larry Page, $32.3 billion, Palo Alto, Calif.
• Sergey Brin, $31.8 billion, Los Altos, Calif.
• Mark Zuckerberg, $28.5 billion,Palo Alto, Calif.
• Laurene Powell Jobs and family, $14 billion, Palo Alto, Calif.
• Eric Schmidt, $9.3 billion, Atherton, Calif.
• Elon Musk, $8.4 billion, Palo Alto, Calif. (HQ)
• Pierre Omidyar, $8.2 billion, Campbell, Calif. (HQ)
• David Duffield, $7.7 billion, Pleasanton, Calif. (HQ)
• Charles Johnson, $7.5 billion, San Mateo, Calif. (HQ)
• Dustin Moskovitz, $6.8 billion, San Francisco, Calif.
• Jan Koum, $6.8 billion, Santa Clara, Calif.
• Rupert Johnson Jr., $6.2 billion, Burlingame, Calif.
• Charles Schwab ,$5.8 billion, Atherton, Calif.
• Gordon Moore, $5 billion, Woodside, Calif.
• George Roberts, $5 billion, Atherton, Calif.
• John A. Sobrato and family, $4.5 billion, Atherton, Calif.
• Stephen Bechtel Jr., $3.9 billion, San Francisco, Calif.
• Riley Bechtel, $3.9 billion, San Francisco, Calif.
• Reid Hoffman, $3.6 billion, Palo Alto, Calif.
• Evan Williams, $3.5 billion, San Francisco, Calif.
• John Doerr, $3.4 billion, Woodside, Calif.
• Doris Fisher, $3.3 billion, San Francisco, Calif.
• Marc Benioff, $3.3 billion, San Francisco, Calif.
• Brian Acton, $3 billion, Palo Alto, Calif.
• John Fisher, $2.9 billion, San Francisco, Calif.
• David Filo, $2.9 billion, Palo Alto, Calif.
• Michael Moritz, $2.8 billion, San Francisco, Calif.
• Dagmar Dolby and family, $2.7 billion, San Francisco, Calif.
• Ken Fisher, $2.4 billion, Woodside, Calif.
• Romesh T. Wadhwani, $2.2 billion, Palo Alto, Calif.
• Richard Peery, $2.2 billion, Palo Alto, Calif.
• Peter Thiel, $2.2 billion, San Francisco, Calif.
• Jack Dorsey, $2.2 billion, San Francisco, Calif.
• James Coulter, $2.1 billion, San Francisco, Calif.
• Jerry Yang, $2.1 billion, Los Altos Hills, Calif.
• John Pritzker, $2 billion, San Francisco, Calif.
• Gordon Getty, $2 billion, San Francisco, Calif.
• William Fisher, $2 billion, San Francisco, Calif.
• Robert Fisher, $2 billion, San Francisco, Calif.
• Daniel Pritzker, $2 billion, Marin County, Calif.
• Meg Whitman, $2 billion, Atherton, Calif.
• Thomas Siebel, $2 billion, Woodside, Calif.
• Jim Breyer, $2 billion, Woodside, Calif.
• John Arrillaga, $1.9 billion, Portola Valley, Calif.
• Robert Duggan, $1.9 billion, Palo Alto, Calif.
• Kavitark Ram Shriram, $1.85 billion, Menlo Park, Calif.
• Scott Cook, $1.6 billion, Woodside, Calif.
• Thomas Steyer, $1.55 billion, San Francisco, Calif.
• Vinod Khosla, $1.5 billion, Portola Valley, Calif.
• Mark Stevens, $1.5 billion, Atherton, Calif.
• Nicholas Woodman, $1.3 billion, Woodside, Calif.
• Aneel Bhusri, $1.3 billion, San Francisco, Calif.
• Denise York, $1.2 billion, San Francisco, Calif. (HQ)
• Drew Houston, $1.2 billion, San Francisco, Calif.
• Jeff Rothschild, $1.2 billion, Los Altos, Calif.
• Mark Pincus, $1.1 billion, San Francisco, Calif.
• Sheryl Sandberg, $1.05 billion, Atherton, Calif.
• John Morgridge, $1 billion, Portola Valley, Calif.

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